Heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury will headline Wembley Stadium this Saturday in a scouting mission to see IBF champion Daniel Dubois defend against Anthony Joshua.
It will be interesting to see how Fury and Joshua react to seeing their conqueror Usyk for the first time since he beat them. Joshua may find it a little more traumatic to be in Usyk’s presence as he went crazy after his loss to the Ukrainian talent two years ago, in August 2022, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
After the fight, Joshua went into a mental breakdown mode, grabbing Usyk’s belts, throwing them out of the ring and then talking nonsense after grabbing the microphone to address the crowd. Joshua looked wild-eyed as if he was capable of doing anything.
Hopefully Joshua doesn’t see Usyk in the crowd because he needs to be 100% dialed into his fight against Dubois. If Joshua is intimidated by the presence of Usyk, it can throw him off his game, causing him to underperform.
Regardless of the outcome of the Joshua-Dubois fight, Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) has been promised a fight against Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) by His Excellency Turki Alalshikh. Usyk will next face Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs) for the undisputed heavyweight championship if both win their fights.
It would have been better for the fans if the winner of the Joshua-Dubois fight had faced the winner of the Fury-Usyk II clash because it would have been more sporting. As it is set up, we could see Joshua and Fury in their all-British fight again next year, coming off humiliating losses.
If these are the circumstances we’re seeing, promoter Eddie Hearn will have to come up with a different tag for the fight, as he says that Fury vs. Joshua would be the biggest fight in boxing. That won’t be the case if one or both losses come.
On December 21, Usyk defends his WBA, WBC and WBO titles against Fury in a rematch in Riyadh. This is a fight that Fury needs to win to generate more interest in a clash between him and Joshua. That won’t happen though, as Usyk got Fury’s number after beating him last May.
