Tyson Fury understands the task in front of him this weekend.
The WBC heavyweight king hopes to become the first four-belt champion by beating WBO, WBA, and IBF titleholder Oleksandr Usyk in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Saturday night.
Fury has previously played down his next opponent and his size by labelling him a ‘middleweight’ – but he’s changed his tune days before their undisputed clash.
“I think he’s the best opponent I’ve ever faced,” Fury told DAZN.
“Because I’ve fought world heavyweight champions before, fought undefeated people before. I fought an Olympic gold medallist before, but I’ve never fought a two-weight world champion.
“So, I think that puts him on top of it all.”
Usyk kicked off his career by winning a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics.
The 37-year-old turned pro and quickly became one of the best cruiserweights in boxing, winning the WBO belt in just his tenth bout.
Six fights later, he was the undisputed cruiserweight king and had cleaned out the division by putting Tony Bellew to sleep to defend his belts in November 2018.
Today, he boasts a perfect 21-0 record and holds three of the four major heavyweight titles after easily outpointing Anthony Joshua in back-to-back fights.
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What Is An Undisputed World Champion?
In boxing, an undisputed world champion is someone who wins all of the four major world title belts in their division – WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO.
Fury currently has the WBC while Usyk holds the WBA, IBF and WBO. Therefore, the winner will hold all four belts as undisputed king.
The last man to hold all the belts in the division was Lennox Lewis when he beat Evander Holyfield to add his WBA and IBF titles to the WBC belt before what is now known as the ‘four-belt era’ with the WBO being recognised from 2004.
Usyk is clearly a very accomplished boxer, but Fury has fought other fighters with impressive CVs, namely heavyweight legend Wladimir Klitschko.
‘Dr. Steelhammer’ won an Olympic gold medal in 1996 before becoming one of the most dominant heavyweights of all time during a 10-year undefeated run that Fury ended in 2015.
Deontay Wilder had a similarly impressive run after turning pro when he claimed bronze in 2008. The American power puncher won his first 40 fights and scored 39 KOs before running into Fury.
‘The Gypsy King’ was dropped twice and only managed to get a draw against Wilder, who made 10 defences of his WBC belt before losing it in a rematch with Fury in February 2020.
Fury settled the score with another win in their trilogy fight, but Wilder scored two more knockdowns and proved he can hang with the Englishman.
Dereck Chisora, Dillian Whyte, Otto Wallin, and Francis Ngannou are just some of the other names on Fury’s glittering 34-0-1 record heading into his biggest fight to date.
Only time will tell if Usyk will live up to his billing as Fury’s toughest opponent yet.
