By: Sean Crose
Former world titlist Shawn Porter stunned some individuals when he claimed on the Deep Waters podcast that he didn’t imagine Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will really struggle. Others on the panel, which included fellow former world titlists Chris Algieri and Paulie Malignaggi – together with George Jacovic – clearly disagreed. Still, Porter had his causes for arguing that Fury-Usyk, which is about to go down February seventeenth, gained’t really occur.
“What we know about Tyson Fury is he’s a showman,” Porter started. “What we know about Tyson Fury is he likes things to be his way or no way.” And, as far Porter was involved, the Usyk struggle doesn’t assure for issues to go Fury’s method. “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 identified that, if Porter was appropriate, Fury can be higher off becoming a member of 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 mentioned, Porter indicated he felt Fury would defeat Usyk if they really threw down.
“If he does get in the ring with him,” Porter mentioned of Fury, “I anticipate him to win that struggle and sail off into the sundown. I feel that would be the final one for him, if he has that struggle.
Algieri admitted he was stunned at how shut the February 17 struggle date was. “I think the fight’s going to happen,” he mentioned. “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, then again, believed Fury-Usyk goes to go down as deliberate. “This fight’s going to happen February 17th,” mentioned 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.”
