The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Boxing with Chris Mannix - What Happened with Fury-Usyk

Episode Date: February 3, 2024

Mannix unpacks what happened on Friday with Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, the future of the fight and potential challenges with getting it rescheduled (4:00). #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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This is boxing with Chris Manning. How somebody punch him in the face. Anthony Joshua is a composed and ferocious finisher. Watch this. Andrew Ruiz is the heavyweight champion. Hosted by S.I's Chris Manix. That was my moment. Now with interviews, analysis, and everything going on in the world of boxing.

When you have talent, you are given another chance. Here's Chris Manix. Oh, well, boxing just can't give us nice things, can it? Every time it seems like we have something good happening in boxing, something bad happens to screw it up. And I'm, of course, talking about the collapse of the Tyson Fury Alexander Usik fight just weeks before the event was scheduled to take place in Saudi Arabia. If you missed this story, and I'm guessing if you listen to this podcast,

You know exactly what happened. But just to recap, on Friday morning or Friday early afternoon, depending on where you are, I reported that Tyson Fury had a significant injury or a significant cut that he suffered in a recent sparring session. And that cut was going to force him out of the fight against Alexander Usik. This was not a minor injury. Fury later on in the day released a picture of the cut. it looked like a pretty significant gash. And if you remember, this is the same area that Tyson Fury suffered a cut against

Otto Wallen. That cut required 40, 50 stitches and kept him on the shelf for a while. This one didn't look quite as bad, but it definitely looked significant enough to warrant withdrawing from the fight. Now, the aftermath, there was some speculation that this card could be salvaged. I talked to Agus Clemmas, the manager of Alexander Usik, and he said they were going to try to find a replacement opponent. He told me that Usik had worked really hard in this training camp. He worked hard over the holidays.

He missed a birthday. I think he said he missed a birthday for one of his kids as well. He didn't want to waste it. He had put a lot of time into getting ready for this championship fight and wanted to showcase his skills, wanted to fight. I mean, look, Usick, he has become really a once-a-year fighter since 2020. And that's not really by his choice. He's just been kind of a prisoner of certain situations, a prisoner of the Anthony Joshua deal, a prisoner of the pandemic, a prisoner of kind of waiting to see what

Tyson Fury was going to do in 2023. So Usik didn't want to put himself in a position where at 37, he would have to be on the shelf for a long time. And there were some overtures, I was told, that were made to Philip Hergevich, who is the IBF mandatory for one of Ussig's belts. Herkovich later came out and said, hey, give me that fight. I'm ready. Let's go. He did fight just this past December on the Day of Reckoning card. And look, Hergevich is no fool. He knows that even if he's not in full training mode right now, the chance to fight for the unified championship and collect the kind of money he would collect in Saudi Arabia. those don't come along every day. So he would have made it work if Saudi Arabia, their officials,

wanted to make it work. But the recent announcement Friday evening by his excellency, Turkey Alashik, he sure sounds like this card is totally done. And that includes some good fights in the undercard. There was Jayapataya coming back. He was going to fight Maris Bredis in a rematch. That was a terrific cruiserweight fight. There was some other fights. as well, but it sure sounds like this entire ring of fire card is, is off. Now, maybe some of these fights can be bumped a couple of weeks to March 8th. That's when Anthony Joshua is going to face Francine Ghanu back in Riyadh. I'm sure that some will wind up on that date. We'd love to see Apataya against Bredas wind up on that date. That's an excellent fight. But for now,

this is where we stand. The February 17th card appears to be off. And we'll see what happens with Tyson Fury. And one thing I was told as far as this cut was this is not something where his return is going to be measured in weeks. It's going to be measured in months. That cut is going to need some time to heal. It's probably going to need some stitching. And by the time he's ready to get back into sparring and to take punches on that cut, it could be summer, maybe even later.

I mean, one thing Agus Clemmas told me was, you know, we could be talking about next Riyadh season, which would be the fall of 2024, or even the spring of 2025. We just don't know. So it really puts in jeopardy a title unification fight between Fury and Alexander Usik, which would have been the first, which would have crowned the first undisputed heavyweight champion about 25 years. So that's a huge bummer. Now, where to both these guys go if they don't make the fight between each other? I mentioned Hergevich. And look, that IBF title is going to be something Alexander Usik has to figure out. Because the way it was going to work with the IBF is that they would have sanctioned Usik Fury for the undisputed championship. No doubt about that.

But in the immediate aftermath of that fight, the plan was for the IBF to order Herkovich to fight the winner. And it was widely expected that the winner would not fight Philip Herkovich because there isn't a ton of money in it. The money would be in a fight with Anthony Joshua. The money would be in a rematch. It just wouldn't be with Philip Hergevich, so Hergevich would have fought for a vacant title against the next man up, whether it's Joseph Parker, Daniel Du Bois, guys that were in the IBF rankings. Now, look, the IBM's going to order that fight. You know, one thing about the IBF, and you can quibble with their rankings and how they don't seem to move the top guys around very much.

But when they make a rule, they tend to follow it. And their rule is that Philip Herkovich's next man up. And they're going to order the fight. And if Ousk doesn't take the fight, they're going to strip Alex and Ousik of his heavyweight title. Now, personally, I wouldn't mind seeing Usoc against Herkovich. And I don't think Usoc would mind seeing Usoc against Herkovich. I think Usoc is down to fight whoever. And he knows the challenge that is Philip Hercovich.

Herkovich is an ex-Olympian. He has some quality wins on his resumes, most notably a win back in 2022 over Jay Le Jong. That win has aged really well in the aftermath of Zhang, knocking out Joe Joyce twice last year. So this is a fight that I think can get made in the first quarter of this year. Because I think Usik will move forward with it. Herkovich, we know, wants that title shot.

will the Saudis want to put on another card? Hard to say at this point. But I think that's got a pretty good chance of happening in the first quarter or at least the first half of 2024. As for Fury, you know, we'll see. You know, one of the reasons I'm skeptical, at least initially, about this fight getting rescheduled, is look, let's just play out this hypothetical. Anthony Joshua fights France-Ingon-won March 8th. Anthony Joshua looks great against Ingano.

Joshua knocks out Inganu in like the third round. This will be a lot of momentum for Joshua to fight Tyson Fury. And while Fury would love to unify the division, become undisputed champions of feathering his cap, he's under no obligation really to do it. You know, I don't know exactly what the contract terms are between Fury and Hergevich, or Fury and Usik, but something tells me that if Fury decided he wanted to fight Anthony Joshua, there's really nothing anybody can do about it. You know, Ussick's not a mandatory challenger for Tyson Fury.

And look, we know that the Saudis, they kind of like the idea of Fury against AJ. That's part of the reason that A.J. was fighting on March 8th, just a couple of weeks after Fury against Ussick. You know, there was a plan in place for the winner of Fury Ucic to fight the winner of Joshua in Ganu. And, you know, from a British perspective, a lot of people rooting for Fury in that fight and a lot of people rooting for AJ in that fight so we can finally get a battle between two of the biggest heavyweight stars and UK boxing history, two guys that if they wanted to would sell out Wembley Stadium in a New York minute and would be a big event if the fight took place in Saudi Arabia. So I'm a little skeptical off the bat that even when Fury heals that will get a reschedule. of Fury against Usik, especially if AJ looks great on March 8th. I think there's a real possibility we could see AJ and Fury sometime this summer,

early fall, if that happens, and they'll kind of kick the can with Usik down the road. That sucks for Alex and Usik because, look, he's got three titles. He's undefeated. He's the former undisputed cruiserweight champion. He was looking forward to test his skills against Tyson Fury. And he just turned 37 years old. So the clock's ticking on Usik's career. in boxing. You could fight Philip Hercovich, that'd be a good fight. You go down the heavyweight

list. He could fight. I guess you could fight J. Lee Zhang, although that's a challenging fight, fighting a Southpaw that big. Jared Anderson over in the U.S. is certainly an option. Frank Sanchez is certainly an option. These are good fights, but they're not a high-profile fights. So my concern with Ussick is that he winds up kind of frozen out of that marquee fight. that he believed that he was getting. And the buildup and the promotion, I mean, you saw it was great. It was great.

That promo that was released for Ring of Fire was one of the best promos I've ever seen. These two guys, like in the Old West, I mean, it was just a lot of fun. This fight would have been great. And it would have been a lot of stake, too, because Fury, you know, coming off that disappointing performance against Francine Gano, he had a lot to prove,

Usik, the chance to be undisputed in two big weight classes, undisputed cruiserweight champion, undisputed heavyweight champion, that would have been, that would have punched his ticket to the Hall of Fame if he hasn't punched already. And now, you know, we'll see what happens. So, bitterly disappointing. I will say this.

Like, I've seen some skepticism, some criticism about Tyson Fury on social media, not surprising, of course. But, I mean, come on. He's not ducking Alexander Usik two and a half weeks before their fight. He didn't intentionally cut himself. It's not a fake cut. That's a real cut. And you can't fight with that.

You can't because the second a cut like that gets touched, it opens up all over again and all of a sudden your fight with one eye. Doesn't work that way in boxing. It's a huge bummer. But it's kind of the price of doing business where you're trying to make marquee fights. Something like this can happen. I do think Fury's got a real bone to pick with the guy he was sparring against. If that video that Fury put out there is legit, he took an elbow. Like what the hell is a sparring partner doing?

throwing that kind of shot on the inside. You are a sparring partner. Yes, it's your job to mimic the actions of the guy you're sparring with future opponent. But, you know, I've seen, watched the video a dozen times and that elbow kind of swung. And I'd be pretty pissed off. I was Tyson Fury. That's for sure because, uh, that cost him a pretty big payday. A cost to a marquee event. It cost him a chance to silence all the critics that are still out there questioning him. it's a bummer. We'll see what happens from there. But that's where we're at. Furiousic is done. Could it be rescheduled? Maybe. Could something else come up? Probably.

Probably. Especially keep an eye on that AJ and Ganoe fight on March 8th. But that's where we are right now. A major fight taken off the schedule and now the future of the heavyweight division very much unclear with its top two guys on the shelf right now, waiting to see. what is next. That's it for this week's bonus episode. As always, subscribe, rate, review this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you download podcast. I'll see you next week.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an acapella band with their between

songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying.

Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to The Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok.