Former super middleweight champion Carl Froch believes Oleksandr Usyk has what it takes to defeat Tyson Fury in their scheduled undisputed showdown, which takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on February 17.
Fury saw action back in October, and struggled to win his crossover boxing match with former UFC champion Francis Ngannou, who was making his pro debut.
In a fight that most observers labeled as a complete mismatch on paper, Fury was dropped in the third round, cut on his forehead and sustained a badly bruised eye. The WBC champion was able to edge a close ten round split decision victory.
The fight Usyk, who holds the WBO, IBO, IBF, WBA titles, will crown the first undisputed champion since Lennox Lewis.
Despite his performance, Froch still regards Fury as the top heavyweight in the sport – with Usyk holding the number two position.
“I’m going to go Tyson Fury number one,” Froch told TNT Sports. “I can predict that Usyk beats Fury, and still have Fury at number one, because Usyk needs to gain that number one spot by beating Fury, which hopefully will happen in February. Then we’ll know.
“But I’ve got Fury at number one and he has to be at number one in my opinion, based on what he’s done. Usyk at number two, because he beat Anthony Joshua.”
Based on his unexpected performance, some MMA journalists have tabbed Ngannou as a top-rive heavyweight – which Froch firmly disagrees with.
“I can’t put Ngannou in the top five,” Froch said. “Just because I’m going to dig my heels in and say he’s only had one fight as a pro. If he has a fight with somebody else ranked in the top 10, we’ll know if that was just a fluke, a bad performance by Fury, or a really strong solid performance from Ngannou.”