After endless negotiations and two postponements, self-styled lineal world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and actual WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO belt holder Oleksandr will finally face each other in the ring in Riyadh on May 18, with the winner to be crowned undisputed king of the big men.
Fury is 10/11 favourite to win the fight and claim all four straps plus a WBC version signed by the Pope for good measure, while Usyk is the marginal 21/20 outsider, and the draw is 16/1.
The odds on the stalemate are unusually short in boxing terms, which tells its own story and there has been precedent for it in one of the most recent of the occasional mega-fights of this stature.
Fury vs Usyk best bet
Bet on the latest Boxing odds at Betzone
Reasons to suspect neither fighter will be able to force a stoppage
The odds compilers are struggling to put much between Fury vs Usyk in terms of their match betting prices, but they seem far more certain about the bout going the distance, pricing it up at 8/15.
It’s easy enough to see why. The Ukranian is very unlikely to stop the Gypsy King – his sole KO win in five outings at heavy came against journeyman Chazz Witherspoon in his first fight at the weight.
Even Deontay Wilder, one of the most explosive one-punch KO artists in the history of the division couldn’t stop Fury when catching him flush in their first encounter.
However, the widely circulating opinion that the Briton’s size and power advantage will be enough for him to eventually wear down Usyk also seems a difficult bandwagon to board.
He’s sure to be in the best possible shape regardless of his undercooked showing against Francis Ngannou last October. Fury has shown us numerous times before that it’s only the biggest challenges that bring out the best he has to offer.
However, the Gypsy King has never faced a boxer with the amateur pedigree of the Ukrainian, a 2012 Olympic gold medallist, 2011 ABA World Champion and veteran of 350 fights in vests and headgear.
For all the Briton may be the bigger man, Usyk’s ringcraft, movement and the skill and variation of his attacks are still likely to be of a level beyond any that Fury has faced in his professional career.
‘The Cat’ has both the guile and the guts to tough out victory when a heftier rival attempts to bully him too, as shown in his second win over Anthony Joshua, a bigger puncher than The Gypsy King.
Draw makes all kinds of sense and there’s been precedence
As discussed, there’s a high likelihood of this fight being a closely fought one that goes to the judges’ scorecards and that means the draw, priced up at a heavyweight 16/1 must come into play.
Fury vs Usyk is long-awaited collision between two uncommonly skilful and effective fighters that have looked head and shoulders above other combatants in their weight class – a billing which has much in common with Saul Alvarez vs Gennady Golovkin.
Canelo and GGG fought to a split decision draw in their first super middleweight collision at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas back in 2016. This fight between two elusive and extremely durable champions could go the same way.
