Tyson Fury's career as a major player will be on the line tonight in his rematch with three-time heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.
Usyk could leave 36-year-old former WBC heavyweight champion Fury out to pasture, as he looks physically accomplished with his looks. Tyson's behavior was strange, signaling that his loss to Uyko last May had taken his best remaining role.
An era has broken
Fury looks worn out, and it's not just because of hard training. That struggle and the mental torture he had to deal with in the last seven months pushed him into the age of the bang. This is where a man suddenly grows old. Fury has clearly gone through one of his losses to Usyk.
Rapid aging usually occurs in the 40s and 60s, but can begin earlier if a person experiences high levels of stress.
Fury's career survival
'The Gypsy King' needs a win tonight not only to put himself in position for a trilogy with Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) if that's the direction he chooses to go, but also to generate interest in the mega-money all – British fight against Anthony Joshua.
The worst possible scenario would be for Fury to get beaten by Usyk tonight, get knocked out, and then sneak into a fight against Joshua, who is coming off a knockout loss. Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) looked awful, losing his last fight and having to be saved by the referee in the ninth round.
What I want to know is who will Fury blame after Usyk takes him down tonight. The obvious fallout would be his coach, SugarHill Stewardwho engineered his win over Deontay Wilder with his poor game plan. Regardless, SugarHill should have been kicked out following Fury's controversial win over Francis Ngannou last year. Tyson really lost that fight, but was saved by the judges in Riyadh.
What was obvious was that SugarHill's game plan built around mauling wasn't working, and he had no other ideas. He was a one trick pony. I don't know why Fury kept him after that instead of kicking him on the spot.
Fury has looked bad in his fights since his one big win in the last nine years, and it's clear SugarHill has no idea how to improve him other than using the fatigue-leaning strategy he devised for the Deontay bout. Fury used the strategy multiple times in his fights against Dillian Whyte's sidekick Dereck Chisora and 0-0 rookie Francis Ngannou.
If things don't work out for Fury tonight, he can give SugarHill and Andy Lee the royal boot. Then he can tell the media that he is going with a completely new team. The fans would take it, and Fury's loss to Usyk tonight would be partially washed away.
The magic of merging
The reality is that Fury is not that good and never has been. He was always just a fighter who got over matchmaking, he lives on his victory over 39-year-old washed-up Vladimir Klitschko. Fury got a LOT of mileage beating the old, fiery guy, who Corrie Sanders had already knocked out in two rounds before fighting him.
Apart from that one win, Fury didn't beat anyone and was always a step above British level, but his promoters carefully put him together to avoid guys who would expose him to the light of day to be average.