By Robert Segal: Oleksandr Usyk says he’s open to a “monster fight” for “money” against Canelo Alvarez before hanging up the gloves.
Whether the Canelo showdown can happen will largely depend on his success in his rematch with Dmitry Bivol. It would be pointless for Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) and Usyk to try to sell a pay-per-view fight to the boxing public if the Mexican star is coming off another one-sided loss to Bivol.
IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight champion Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) revealed today that he plans to fight just three more times before retiring from the sport. The fights Usyk wants are against Tyson Fury, Canelo and a fight in the Ukraine.
“He wanted to fight me. But it will be a rare fight, just to make money. Why not? I mean, it’s just for the money,” Usyk told USYK17 about his interest in fighting Canelo Alvarez.
There is no other reason for Canelo and Usyk to fight other than money because it would be a mismatch. When someone mentioned to Canelo the possibility of fighting Usyk, that was before his loss to Bivol and his less-than-impressive performance against Gennadiy Golovkin last Saturday night.
When you look at those two fights, Canelo won’t stand a chance of being competitive against Usyk unless he stays first throughout the fight. The 5’8″ Canelo would be giving up a lot of height and reach against the 6’3″ Usyk (20-0, 13 KO).
It would help Canelo if he first fought at cruiserweight against one of the champions like Lawrence Okolie before moving up to heavyweight to face Usyk for his three world titles. Of course, Canelo won’t do that because it would just be a money fight against Usyk, and I don’t think he really believes he can win.
“[Deontay] Wilder, I suppose. [But I prefer] Rage. I don’t take the easy way out,” Usyk said when asked who would be the most comfortable fight for him between Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua.
Deontay Wilder’s handlers will keep him away from Usyk because they realize he’s a bad style match for him. They’re trying to rebuild him, and it would ruin his plans if he was thrown in with Usyk, who is a smaller version of Tyson Fury.
