The year 1933 is still considered by boxing historians to be the worst in heavyweight history. 90 years later, despite strong champions, there is a similar lull. A mega spectacle at the end of the year could change everything – in Saudi Arabia.
Angelo Di Carlo senses the big thing. The big one. The biggest – at least for Australia. Di Carlo is an Australian boxing manager. One of his charges is a heavyweight named Demsey McKean. And Di Carlo brings this McKean into play as a challenger to Tyson Fury.
Fury is world heavyweight champion and has been looking for an opponent for the summer for quite some time. Most recently, the “Gypsy King” advertised via Instagram and Co. almost desperately for a dance partner in the ring. Oleksandr Usyk should please come to the UK, pick up his 30 percent stock market and a beating, Fury trotted. He later begged his US promoter Bob Arum to finally get him a challenger. The 90-year-old had previously said he had no idea what Fury even wanted.
As a reminder: In March, the WBC champion had the long-awaited fight against WBA/WBO/IBF title holder Usyk for the one true crown burst – even though Usyk accepted Fury’s absurd condition, which only gave the Ukrainian 30 percent -Share of event revenue dictated. But because his bluff was blown, Fury then demanded more and more and more. Until Usyk and his promoter Alexander Krassyuk waved them off. Fans and experts etched that Fury would rather defend his title against a weaker opponent than compete with the boxing talented and therefore dangerous left-hander Usyk.
Only: The 2.06 meter colossus has not even managed to do that to date. Former world champion Andy Ruiz, number two in the world rankings at the WBC association, apparently asked for too much money to put off his turnip in England. Other reasonably marketable competitors are rare. Fury’s UK promoter Frank Warren recently admitted that finding an opponent for his protégé is complicated. A “Gypsy King” without clothes. “Fury has no attractive option for a fight with which he could fill a stadium or at least a hall in England,” boxing expert Bernd Bönte told ntv.de. The world champion in Great Britain “is not the big number as some think. Many Britons don’t like him. In the boxing ring, Fury is the ultimate in the top weight class, but outside of it he is not nearly as popular as his great domestic opponent Anthony Joshua because of his often low-level appearance,” said the longtime manager of the Klitschkos.
Fury Show Down Under? “Absolute rubbish!”
Maybe that’s why Fury first traveled to Australia. His training partner and friend Joseph Parker got in the ring (and won) there on Wednesday in Melbourne. Buddy Fury was there to support, it was said. Or for other purposes?
Because there’s Angelo Di Carlo and his Aussie boxer Demsey McKean. “Talks of a fight between Demsey and Tyson Fury started a while ago,” Di Carlo told News Corp. His husband is “the best option” and a “real test” for Fury if he wants to box Down Under. And anyway: Fury vs. McKean would be “the greatest fight in Australian history,” said Di Carlo (of the duel between Tommy Burns and Jack Johnson on Boxing Day 1908 in Sydney, when Johnson was crowned the first black heavyweight world champion, the manager probably never heard of). Fury doesn’t seem averse to the idea. McKean is “a top 10 heavyweight” and therefore a hot candidate for a potential appearance in Australia, said the Briton in Melbourne.
Demsey McKean is 32 years old, unbeaten in 22 professional fights, southpaw and – probably his greatest asset – 1.98 meters tall. An opponent of rank and name is not found in his fight record. In the WBC rankings, McKean is ranked 36th, actually he is not suitable for the World Cup. Because according to the rules of the WBC, the world champion must defend his title against a “qualified challenger” from the top 15. However, since boxing associations are particularly creative, “under special circumstances” and with a 2/3 majority of the WBC “supervisory board” a boxer who does not meet this criterion can also fight for the title. In other words, should Fury really aim for the circus fight against McKean in Australia, the officials would not withhold their blessing.
Does it really happen? Eddie Hearn gives a clear answer. “This is absolute rubbish! Tyson Fury is not fighting in Australia,” said the promoter of Fury’s English rival Joshua on iFL TV. “I don’t see Fury doing any other fight than the one against Oleksandr Usyk in December because the money he wants just can’t be reached with any other fight.”
Saudi Arabia plans Eight Fists spectacle
So Usyk. Investors from Saudi Arabia are far from shelving the fight for the undisputed championship of all classes. What’s more: the Middle East potentates want to set up an event of superlatives at the end of the year. Fury against Usyk, plus the duel between knockout experts Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua in the opening act. “If that happens, it would be the sporting event of the year, the biggest thing that has happened in boxing for years,” emphasizes Bönte. The planned eight-fist number is a bit like Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis and Riddick Bowe in the ring in the 90s. Roughly because the grandees of that time “were to be placed one shelf higher in terms of sport,” according to the fistfight connoisseur.
It is no secret that concrete negotiations are already taking place about the mammoth project in the Middle East. Hearn confirmed the Saudi plans and only recently traveled to the Persian Gulf. British media are speculating about the financial volume. 300 million dollars, 400 even? The only thing that seems clear is that it shouldn’t fail because of the money. “If the Saudis really want it, they’ll do it, you can see how much money they’re pumping into football or their golf league, for example,” says Bönte: “In the end, boxing is a business: if you pay, you buy. ” The “biggest uncertainty factor” in the venture is Fury. He always wants to renegotiate deals that have been made in order to get even more out of it, torpedoing deals that seem so secure.
If the gigantic fistfight event manifests itself, Hearn could be right and Fury could actually not climb into the rope square until December – even if the world champion in Melbourne announced that a duel with southpaw McKean would be “great preparation” for Usyk. The Ukrainian will definitely do something about the threatening ring rust. Usyk will defend his title against WBA mandatory challenger Daniel Dubois on August 12 in Breslau. The 25-year-old Englishman represents a calculable risk for Usyk on the way to Saudi Arabia. Dubois has a hard punch, but is clearly inferior to the defending champion in boxing. Anything but Usyk’s win would be a sensation.
Bönte doesn’t believe that the other protagonists, Joshua and Wilder, are fighting. Neither wanted to jeopardize the big impact and payday at the end of the year. Joshua himself, after his lackluster win over American Jermaine Franklin on April 1, has already revealed his next fight won’t be until December.
Nobody talks about heavyweight
The mega-spectacle in Saudi Arabia – albeit on questionable, because totalitarian terrain – could compensate the boxing fans. Because so far the year 2023 has been a single failure in the heavyweight division. May is coming to an end and still no world championship fight has taken place in the premier class. 1933 is still considered by boxing historians to be the worst in heavyweight history. With Primo Carnera, a giant from Italy was world champion who actually couldn’t box at all. 90 years later there is a similar lull, although there are two strong champions. Without the financial power of the Saudis, 2023 could remain a heavyweight bore.
At least the lightweights have stepped into the breach. In April, young US stars Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia rang the cash register (“Tank” Davis won the pay-per-view extravaganza when Garcia retired after being shot in the body). Last weekend, lightweight world champion Devin Haney from the USA and exceptional talent from Ukraine Vassiliy Lomachenko fought a top-class duel over twelve rounds in the MGM Grand on the Vegas Strip. Since then, the boxing world has been passionately discussing the narrow and controversial ruling in Haney’s favour.
On the other hand, nobody is talking about the heavyweight at the moment – especially since the next hit is due in the summer, a few classes down. After years of bickering, the undefeated Americans Terence Crawford and Errol Spence jr. in Las Vegas finally decide who is king in the welterweight division. It’s a duel that fans and pundits have been lusting after for years. One that comes just in time. Crawford is 35 and Spence is 33.
The big four in the heavyweight division don’t have much time anymore either. Oleksandr Usyk is 36 years old, Tyson Fury will soon be 35. Deontay Wilder is even 37. The youngest is Anthony Joshua, who is also 33 years old. The clock ticks the same everywhere. Even if Melbourne and Riyadh are worlds apart.