Via Scott Gilfoid: Fans still don’t know who is the No. 1 heavyweight contender in the group due to the two champions, Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury, but the picture will be more accurate in 2022.
Basically, five boxers are competing for 1st place in the division, and they are as follows:
- Tyson Fury – WBC Champion
- Oleksandr Usyk – IBF, WBA & WBO . Champion
- Anthony Joshua
- Dillian Whyte – Interim WBC Champion
- Deontay Wilder
Tyson Fury
Currently, many boxing fans, especially those in the UK, believe that WBC champion Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) is the #1 heavyweight and he will beat the other four. .
Unfortunately, due to Fury’s less than impressive knockout win in round 11 over Deontay Wilder in their three-part bout on October 9, Gypsy King has lost a lot of credibility among fans.
In that fight, Fury seemed to be overrated in a fourth fight, matching the infamous 1927 fight. ‘Heavenly War’ Between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney at Soldiers Field in Chicago.
Wilder drops Fury, and it looks like 11 seconds vibrate on the clock before he gets up. When you add to that weird situation controversy with Fury’s first fight against Deontay, in which he was beaten cold in round 12 and surprisingly scored by the referee while he was province, it’s hard to conclude that he is the No. 1 heavyweight contender in the assignment match.
If anything, you have to say that Wilder should be on Fury if the right calls are made in those two bouts.
Oleksandr Usyk
Last September, former undisputed cruiser champion Oleksandr Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) shocked the world by defeating then-IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua ( 24-2, 22 KOs) beating him by 12 rounds unanimously. decision at the Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium in North London.
Overconfident that Joshua promoter Eddie Hearn had won, he chose to discourage his AJ fighter from vacating his WBO belt in exchange for the cunning Mandatory Usyk.
In retrospect, this proved to be a terrifying mistake, as Usyk placed himself above a master level by easily knocking down the sluggish 6’6″ giant Joshua.
Once again, Hearn showed excessive confidence in his glaringly flawed heavyweight Joshua by backing his wrong decision using his rematch clause to WORD of the second war with the 2012 Olympic gold medal Usyk.
Although most of the world was saying that Joshua should avoid a second fight with Usyk, he insisted on fighting the Ukrainians a second time.
This fight could prove to be Joshua’s Waterloo, and Hearn will be the one that will be blamed by many boxing fans for getting locked in at his odd idea of facing Usyk a second time. .
Dillian Whyte
WBC interim heavyweight champion Dillian ‘The Body Snatcher’ Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) seems to be the least likely of the five to be selected as the #1 boxer in the tournament.
Whyte, 33, was knocked out by 40-year-old Alexander Povetkin in 2020 in their first fight and it was only after the Russian boxer returned from a terrible COVID-19 case that Dillian was able to avenge him. his loss.
Many boxing fans believe Whyte has played the victim for years, complaining day and night about being disrespected during a title fight with former WBC champion Wilder and current champion Fury.
When you look at Whyte’s actions, he only blames himself for not winning the title. He had the opportunity to fight Luis Ortiz in 2018 when the World Boxing Council ordered the title removed between them, but Dillian chose not to join the fight.
When Whyte finally agreed to fight in a title elimination against supposedly softer goal of Oscar Rivas in 2019, it took a lot of time for him.
The way Whyte looked in his first fight with Povetkin, and his showdowns with Joseph Parker, Dereck Chisora and Mariusz Wach, makes it impossible to pick him as the No. 1 heavyweight contender in the tournament.
Whyte looks like a larger version of Chisora’s journeyman and have many similar bugs in my game.
Anthony Joshua
This writer has pointed out that Joshua is currently falling too short to take him to No. 1 in the heavyweight division. Joshua’s career is like a sinking ship, and the person who drives him Hearn can’t bail water fast enough to keep AJ’s boat from going down.
The loss to Joshua last September was the second of his previous four fights since 2019, and if he loses in a rematch against 34-year-old Usyk next April, as many would expect. wait, that would be his third loss in his last five games.
With a 2-3 in his last 5 fights, that would be a CLEAR sign that Joshua’s career as a top heavyweight contender is effectively coming to an end. As such, you can’t call Joshua the #1 heavyweight in the tournament for obvious reasons.
However, Joshua will still be a moneymaker and will likely continue to be Matchroom Boxing’s #1 guy when it comes to bringing back the dough. It’s just that you can’t consider Joshua the #1 or even #4 heavyweight contender in the league.
Like the journeyman Dereck Chisora, Joshua will continue to bring in huge amounts of money in his fights no matter how many defeats he takes on because UK boxing fans have not abandoned him.
Deontay Wilder
The last two injury-time losses suffered by former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder at the hands of Tyson Fury kept him from being considered the #1 heavyweight contender on the planet.
Of course, if you look at the strange things that happened in Wilder’s three fights with Fury, you can make a strong argument that Deontay should still be undefeated and running for No.
If you consider the first and third Wilder-Fury fights as a knockout victory for Wilder since he literally took down Fury, the only thing you can doubt is the second fight.
That’s what Fury killed in terms of punch rabbit which he did during the competition. In addition to the rabbit punch by Fury, there are clapping gloves that has made many boxing fans suspicious.
They believe Fury somehow let his hand slip under the padding of his glove during his fight with Wilder and essentially hit him with bare knuckle punches during the battle.
Later, it was reported that Wilder had an egg-shaped dent on his skull from a fight. In other words, the force of Fury’s punches may have dented Wilder’s skull during the battle.
Again, there’s too much controversy surrounding those three Wilder-Fury matches to conclude that Wilder isn’t a #1 heavyweight contender in the league.
Dillian Whyte is absent in 2021
Eddie Hearn said to iFL TV on Dillian Whyte, fighting only once in 2021.
“Obviously, the fight with Otto Wallin that everyone thought [Dillian bailed out on],” said Heartn. “He is going to make a lot of money for that game. And he wants to fight Otto Wallin.
“He can’t fight him [because of a shoulder injury]. A few weeks later, he received an order from the WBC. It’s been bittersweet in some respects, but now he’s moving forward for a title,” Hearn said of Whyte.
“But if he had Povetkin, Wallin, Fury, it would be a much more privileged year for Dillian Whyte, but he is in good form. He’s in a good place, and it looks like he’s finally getting his chance,” Hearn said.
Hears Fury to face Whyte
“Well, he’s fighting Tyson Fury. Negotiations have been arranged, possibly after Christmas if there is no deal. I don’t know the exact date because it’s not on the correspondence. But usually, it’s 28 or 30 days of negotiation,” Hearn said.
“The bids in the wallet will be ordered and when the wallet orders are placed, the split will be determined and we can still do a deal in that week or ten days or whatever. . But anything can happen, man, anything. Don’t rule anything out.
“I am just being completely honest about the situation, but I also say that anything can happen. Right now, I’m telling you that I think Fury will fight Whyte, and AJ will fight Usyk.
“Unless he agrees to let that not happen, which is not the case,” Hearn said of Whyte’s refusal to let Fury go aside to fight someone else.
“The kind of money that would be paid for him to step aside, I don’t feel that would even entertain a discussion. So again, anything can happen, but I’m almost certain that Fury or not, Dillian Whyte’s next fight will be for the WBC world heavyweight belt,” Hearn said.
