Eddie Hearn, promoter for former two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, is not completely sure if Tyson Fury is now past his best.
In last fight, back in October, Fury struggled to win a razor-close ten round split decision over MMA veteran Francis Ngannou, who was making his professional debut in boxing.
Fury was dropped in the third round, sustained a cut on his forehead and bruised eye. He struggled with Ngannou’s style throughout the fight.
Prior facing Ngannou, Fury had a war of wills in a trilogy fight with Deontay Wilder. He was dropped twice, but also decked Wilder three times for a knockout win. That fight was followed by two easy wins over Dillian Whyte and Derek Chisora.
Joshua is now scheduled to face Ngannou on March 8 in Saudi Arabia.
For his part, Fury will collide with Oleksandr Usyk in a high-stakes undisputed showdown, also in Saudi Arabia.
Because of the uncertainty around Fury’s present-day abilities, Hearn is unsure about level of threat involved with Ngannou.
“He dropped Fury and that gave him credibility. What we don’t know is… was it a one-off? But we know the confidence he has from that fight will push him on in this fight,” Hearn said to The Mirror.
“But we’ve seen him now and Ben Davison has 10 rounds to come up with a gameplan. Maybe [Fury] is a shot fighter, we’ll find out on February 17. It’s very difficult to imagine going into a fight having no idea what the other guy is going to do. You’ve got to figure it out from the first bell. How big a puncher is Ngannou? People tell us he’s a monstrous puncher but is Fury’s chin going? We’ll have to find out.”