Usyk’s long-time promoter sums up Anthony Joshua’s chances of beating Tyson Fury now

Fans continue to wait for an official announcement for the fight between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury, and now Alex Krassyuk, who promoted Oleksandr Usyk for his bouts against Joshua and Fury, has offered his thoughts on the long-awaited grudge match.

Usyk twice outpointed both ‘AJ’ and ‘The Gypsy King’ in the four standout performances of his heavyweight career – which looks set to come to a close in six months’ time – but it now seems as though Joshua and Fury will finally collide.

Still, it is recognised by the masses that Joshua and Fury are both past their sell-by date, after AJ was twice floored by the previously-unknown Kristian Prenga, whilst it took Fury seven rounds to dispatch of a 46-year-old Mariusz Wach in July.

Speaking to Boxing King Media, Krassyuk, who left Team Usyk before Joshua joined, labelled Fury-Joshua as a ’50/50’ and highlighted the fact that, whilst Joshua’s chin consistently comes into question, Fury was dropped by Deontay Wilder on four occasions.

“It is a 50/50, absolutely. Both guys have good and bad sides, if you compare those and you evaluate it for both, you will come to the conclusion that it is a 50/50 fight because anything may happen. AJ can go down from Prenga twice on the first round, the same can happen to Tyson Fury, he was down however many times in his three fights with Deontay Wilder.”

However, Krassyuk went on to explain that the version of Joshua that existed before he fought Usyk would make easy work of Fury, advising the two-time world champion to adopt an aggressive approach to the contest.

“It is always a matter of how guys approach, we can go a little bit deeper into tactics. If AJ continues the way that he boxed in the last five/seven rounds, I don’t see many chances for him. Before fighting Usyk, he was an animal, he was a beast. He was just coming in and trying to kill his opponent.

“After fighting Usyk, he suddenly wanted to start to become a boxer, but he had only 40 fights in the amateurs and Usyk had 400. How can you become [as good of a] boxer without fighting those other 360 fights? No chance. So, you have to improve your advantage and just work well with where you are missing.

“He shouldn’t have become a boxer. You have a horse-power fist, you have an extraordinary jab, you can kill a man in front of you with only your jab, if you come hard, I am now on AJ’s side. If you come hard and you start hitting your best punches, you can finish the guy in three/four rounds. Two or three proper punches landing on Fury’s chin and it is game over.”

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It remains unclear whether Fury-Joshua will go ahead as a dispute over the location rumbles on.