Former cruiserweight world champion Steve Cunningham has predicted the demise of his ex-opponent Tyson Fury on May 18.
Cunningham, who astonishingly dropped Fury at Madison Square Garden in 2013 despite a 44-pound weight disadvantage, sees Oleksandr Usyk winning their undisputed battle.
“USS” watched on earlier this month when Anthony Joshua pulverized Francis Ngannou in two rounds. It was a far cry from Fury’s effort against the one-time UFC heavyweight champion five months earlier.
Like Cunningham did, Ngannou put Fury on the canvas early on. However, ‘The Gypsy King” rose from the ashes to see out the victory – again as he did against Cunningham.
A lack of real preparation was cited for the contrasting fortunes against a limited boxer, which Cunningham doesn’t believe will be a gauge when Fury and Joshua finally meet.
For now, Fury has his hands full against Usyk, and Cunningham sees the Ukrainian taking all the heavyweight titles in the spring.
“I was not surprised at all to see what Anthony Joshua did to Francis Ngannou,” Cunningham told World Boxing News in an exclusive interview. “I mean, Ngannou is an amateur boxer at best.
“Against Joshua, he fell for feints, and his defense was lame. He didn’t see the set-up that Joshua laid. I thought the KO would come later due to the power of Ngannou and Joshua taking his time, but no, he went right to work.
“I believe Ngannou only looked as good as he did fighting Fury because Fury didn’t take fighting an MMA guy seriously. Ngannou does have unbelievable power, though. He landed a clean shot on Fury, who wasn’t in shape at all. I was surprised at that but not at the fact that Fury got up and outpointed him.”
On Fury facing Joshua and Usyk, Cunningham added: “I think Joshua vs Fury is a fight that needs to happen. Who wins? I don’t know how it goes if both men are at their peak conditioning as they have champion mindsets. They will present different dangers to each other.
“I think Usyk wins by decision against Fury, though. Either that or Fury gets disqualified,” The American predicted. “Fury’s going to have to lean and lay all over Usyk to tire him down – as he does usually.
“But I think the referee will be alerted to this before the fight [by team Usyk], and Fury will lose points.”
Retiring in 2017 as a two-time titleholder at 200 pounds, Cunningham returned for one bout after a four-year hiatus. He won against Frank Mir but decided to bow out of the sport a winner following a previous loss to Andrew Tabiti.
After 40 fights, Cunningham’s record reads 30-9-1. However, everyone instantly recalls the Fury knockdown as Cunningham laid out the WBC champion with a jackhammer shot.
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