Posted on 01/05/2024
By: Sean Crose
Former world titlist Shawn Porter surprised some people when he claimed on the Deep Waters podcast that he didn’t believe Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will actually fight. Others on the panel, which included fellow former world titlists Chris Algieri and Paulie Malignaggi – along with George Jacovic – clearly disagreed. Still, Porter had his reasons for arguing that Fury-Usyk, which is set to go down February 17th, won’t actually happen.
“What we know about Tyson Fury is he’s a showman,” Porter began. “What we know about Tyson Fury is he likes things to be his way or no way.” And, as far Porter was concerned, the Usyk fight doesn’t guarantee for things to go Fury’s way. “Me personally,” Porter continued, “I don’t feel like this is the kind of energy he (Fury) wants to exert anymore in the boxing ring, which is why he went after Francis Ngannou…those are the kind of fights he’s looking for, things that are going to give him the money, and the recognition, and the nights that he won’t have to trade hard for.”
Algieri pointed out that, if Porter was correct, Fury would be better off joining the WWE. “Don’t be surprised if something comes up with the WWE before this,” Porter replied. “I think that there’s a lot of pluses for Tyson Fury, but I just don’t see him being able to look at those pluses and feel like ‘hey I’m going to win that fight, I’m going to beat him’.” With that being said, Porter indicated he felt Fury would defeat Usyk if they actually threw down.
“If he does get in the ring with him,” Porter said of Fury, “I expect him to win that fight and sail off into the sunset. I think that will be the last one for him, if he has that fight.
Algieri admitted he was surprised at how close the February 17 fight date was. “I think the fight’s going to happen,” he said. “I’m not so sure it’s going to happen in six weeks, because like Shawn says, Fury likes to be the captain of his own ship and he thinks the whole world revolves around whatever the hell he says and for a time it definitely did. I’m not sure it’s going to happen when it’s supposed to, but I do think it’s going to happen at some point.”
Malignaggi, on the other hand, believed Fury-Usyk is going to go down as planned. “This fight’s going to happen February 17th,” said Malignaggi. “That’s it. This fight’s going to happen. Fury has been quiet because Fury goes into his spaced out zone when he goes into full focus mode and that’s when you know he’s actually preparing very, very well.”