Fury Won’t Fight Zhang, Wallin Wants Fury Stripped

In heavyweight boxing news, Paulie Malignaggi has predicted that Tyson Fury will not fight Zhilei Zhang.

Following Zhang’s win over Joe Joyce in which he stopped the latter in the third round, the Chinese called out Tyson Fury. Zhang had made it clear prior to the rematch that he had wanted to face Fury only for Joyce to exercise the rematch clause.

Such a match up would be an intriguing one with both men at least 6ft 6 inches tall as well as being one of the heaviest boxers out there with durable chins and punch power. Although that may be the case, Malignaggi felt that it was too much of a risk for Fury to take on the challenge. 

Malignaggi On Fury

“Zhilei Zhang, big knockout win. Where does he go now? People are going to say, ‘Oh, he should fight Fury now. He’s got his name now in England with two wins over Joyce.’ I agree.  The only thing is I don’t see Fury coming back against guys like Zhang,” Malignaggi

Nevertheless, the fight may happen for the following reason. Fury has stressed that his intention is to secure the most lucrative fights.

A bout against Zhang in China could generate those numbers with a population of over a billion in the offing to back the event. Not only that, but it would open up another market for Fury to be able to expand his profile in. 

But if the fight does not happen, then the only logical bout out there that could appease the fans is the Oleksandr Usyk fight. After all, it would be for the undisputed heavyweight championship. As such, Malignaggi saw Usyk as the likelier fight to happen rather than Zhang.

“If anything, maybe you’ll see Fury against Usyk, but I don’t even know if you’ll see that at this point because he’s making more money knocking out MMA rejects than anything else. That’s not any disrespect to Francis Ngannou, who was an excellent MMA fighter, but he can’t get the money in MMA that he can in boxing,” Malignaggi said

Wallin On Fury

Those comments were backed up by Otto Wallin, who understood why the WBC heavyweight champion had chosen to fight Francis Ngannou.

The latter will be making his boxing debut in a fight that will earn Fury a reported $50 million. While that is true, the fact of the matter is that Fury’s WBC title will not be on line.

Therefore, Wallin stressed that the champion should be stripped for not allowing others to fight for the belt even if Fury does not have a mandatory yet. 

“I think it’s bad. He’s the heavyweight world champion. He should defend it against a top contender. I know why he’s fighting Ngannou. He’s making a lot of money I’m sure. I really hope that after this fight he’s gonna defend against somebody ranked in the WBC, otherwise they should strip him,” Wallin stated