Jim Lampley, best known for his days on HBO boxing, has accused Tyson Fury of ducking Oleksandr Usyk.
Following Fury’s win over Derek Chisora, all the talk turned towards a fight with Usyk. However, the negotiations proved problematic.
Despite Usyk having three belts, he was only offered a 30 percent split of the purse. Much to the shock of the boxing community, however, the Ukrainian accepted it.
Nothing appeared to be in the way of making the fight happen, only for talks to break down.
Jim Lampley On Tyson Fury: "I Think He's Ducking Usyk." – https://t.co/zdQwKGtjE6 pic.twitter.com/uPeQakFEsc
— Boxing Insider.com (@BoxingInsider) August 24, 2023
In the aftermath, there was a perception that Fury had priced himself out of the fight in an attempt to avoid the Ukrainian.
After all, he is facing Francis Ngannou next, who is an MMA fighter making his boxing debut. As for Usyk, he will face his WBA mandatory Daniel Dubois on August 26th, 2023.
With that being said, Lampley saw no reason for Fury to avoid Usyk other than it being a case of him ducking the heavyweight.
“I think he’s ducking Usyk, at least for the time being and then eventually the money will pile up to such an extent that it can’t be avoided anymore. If there’s anybody in the world he (Fury) should duck in terms of style. It’s definitely Usyk. What is Usyk?He’s a quick counter puncher. He’s a quicker counter puncher than Fury – necessarily because of size. I want to see Fury fight Usyk,” Lampley