Amid the fervent anticipation and hype surrounding Saturday’s undisputed heavyweight championship between unbeaten three-belt champion Oleksandr Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs) and unbeaten WBC titleholder Tyson Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs), the ultimate high stakes loom in their guaranteed mid-October rematch.
It’s that bout that allows the winner to exit as an undisputed champion, free to select whoever he would like next.
On Thursday’s episode of ProBox TV’s “Deep Waters,” former world titleholders Paulie Malignaggi, Chris Algieri and Shawn Porter wrestled with the impact of the rematch clause.
Does it inspire either fighter to treat this first bout differently, knowing another opportunity looms in just a few short months? Or is the pride connected to the idea of sweeping these two fights and remaining unbeaten just too profound?
Malignaggi doesn’t like the concept of rematch clauses in the first place.
“This is the clown show boxing continues to be – the rematch should, in and of itself, be created by the demand from the fight,” Malignaggi said.
He said rematch clauses – like the one created with last year’s Errol Spence Jr.-Terence Crawford fight – are built in by the A-side and hitched to “greed.”
Crawford-Spence II didn’t happen, mostly because Spence was so pummeled in his ninth-round TKO loss.
“It’s not cool. It’s hurting the sport,” Malignaggi said.
Algieri said the sport’s turn from sports to entertainment, working to ensure the business thrives, is behind this – whether it takes the edge and urgency off the stakes of the first night or not.
“Ultimately, all that matters is the bottom line,” Algieri said.
Porter, who fought Usyk as an amateur, and has closely followed Fury’s career, said he compares the rematch clause by viewing how an Olympic sprinter would view his or her participation in the 100-meter and 200-meter races.
“No one runs the 200 slow knowing they have the 100 later,” Porter said.
“You feel like you’ve got to go all out, no matter what. I can’t imagine [their] thought process being anything other than, ‘I need to win [now] and I need to win later on.’”
Fury already participated in a two-fight deal, when he first captured the WBC heavyweight belt by stopping Deontay Wilder in a seventh-round TKO in February 2020, then returned at the close of the pandemic and knocked him out in the 11th in their fight of the year in October 2021.
“It’s best to show your best self every time you go in the ring,” Porter said. “I know Usyk doesn’t have any plan other than winning, and … I can’t imagine [Fury] saying, ‘I’ll cruise control this one because I’ve got the second one later.’
“I expect a great, very close fight. You can flip a coin on this one. There’s so many ways either guy can win this fight.”
Indeed there is, and with the insurance policy of the rematch existing, perhaps someone will just throw caution to the wind and pursue a quick stoppage?
Porter assesses that the more likely outcome will be 24 rounds of quality boxing, unless there is a knockout.
He said it’s that expectation that makes the bout so attractive, more than the undisputed magnitude of it.
“These guys being so good, I just don’t know who’s going to win,” he said. “I think they will fight 100 percent, and may the best man win. I don’t see flaws in Usyk’s or Fury’s game. This is a special fight: ‘The Man’ versus ‘The Man.’”