Tyson Fury has considered Oleksandr Usyk’s justification for distancing himself from a showdown with heavyweight prodigy Moses Itauma.
The Ukrainian comes off an 11th-round stoppage victory over Rico Verhoeven, only he was made to work harder than expected to get the former long-reigning kickboxing champion out of there.
In what was initially thought to be nothing more than a showcase event, Usyk ended up trailing on one judges’ scorecard after 10 completed rounds.
Their contest last month then resulted in controversy when Verhoeven, after being floored by a right uppercut, was waved off by referee Mark Lyson.
The 37-year-old later filed an appeal against the decision, seeing that he was stopped after the bell had sounded, but his efforts were ultimately dismissed.
Usyk, meanwhile, must decide whether to vacate his WBC title – and potentially pursue a rematch with Verhoeven – or face WBC ‘interim’ champion Agit Kabayel.
Either way, the 39-year-old has expressed no interest in fighting Itauma, who comes off an emphatic fifth-round finish over the typically durable Jermaine Franklin, claiming that he didn’t want to ‘break’ him at such a young age.
“No, I’m not going to fight with Itauma because he’s a young guy. I don’t want to break this guy.”
Speaking with IFL TV, former opponent Fury doesn’t believe Usyk’s reasoning for not wanting to face Itauma.
“Bulls**t. Oleksandr is coming up to around 40 years old, he has just been pushed all of the way and probably lost every round against a kickboxer. So, I don’t think that he wants to fight a 21-year-old kid who is mustard, for no gain.
“He is not going to gain big money because Moses doesn’t have that following at the moment or the popularity. He is coming up, he is a rising star but he is not on top at the moment, so he [Usyk] isn’t going to gain anything from it.
“It’s all to lose and nothing to gain. If he beats Moses, he has beat a young kid coming up and if he loses to Moses, he has lost to a 21-year-old, so it doesn’t make much sense [for Usyk to fight him].”
Itauma will face Filip Hrgovic at London’s O2 Arena on August 29, entering his toughest assignment in the professional ranks thus far.
