Where does that leave Fury and Usyk? If over time Fury had worked out how to defeat Wilder how does that affect the Fury vs Usyk possible fight? In my opinion if this Fury/Usyk drama was to continue the best thing that can happen in order to add pressure on both Fury and Usyk, is for Joshua to fight Wilder. That would really add a new dimension to the heavyweight division.
Before Usyk entered the scene, Wilder was considered Fury's toughest opponent. In fact, many believed Wilder would win the fight, and he was the heavy favorite on sports betting sites. Wilder was -160 in the first fight and -125 in the second one. He was actually the underdog in their last bout, and he lost because Fury had figured out how to beat him. Although Fury had already defeated Wilder in their rematch, the last fight was a pretty dominant win for him.
Fury defeated Wilder three times, and Usyk declassed Joshua twice. No matter how they fight with each other (Wilder and Joshua), it is unlikely that this can somehow change their position regarding the Usyk-Fury pair, at least until we see the first fight between Usyk and Fury. Theoretically, one could speculate that the balance of power in this four could turn over over time, but these boxers are at such an age that in the coming years they will simply end their careers.
Yeah, so as far as rankings, it will be Fury, Usyk, and then AJ and Wilder.
And as much as AJ and Wilder wanted to say that they are the best in HW, they don't have any belts to boot. The only thing they have is that they are just in those tier and that's why we wanted to see them facing each other, Fury vs AJ for all British, or AJ vs Wilder as this fight has been touted for many years before they got beaten.
Francis though is the odd man out right now, he needs to beat at least one of them before his name could be inserted in the discussions.
AJ and Wilder should fight each other and then the winner can take the winner or the loser of the Usyk-Fury. But then again there are also overdue mandatories for the IBF (Hrgovic) and WBO (Zhang) for the Usyk-Fury winner. And there's also the chance that Fury makes another crazy stuff and retires again to avoid Usyk just like what he did before in avoiding a rematch with Wlad.
And by the way, Wilder is not the toughest opponent Fury faced, it's Wlad and it's not even close. Wilder had been ducking Wlad and then AJ, he was cherry-picking and hostaging the WBC belt for many years. It was his first time stepping up against Fury who just returned from years of retirement thinking he could take advantage of it.