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Does Tommy Fury vs. Eddie Hall carry spillover from Oleksandr Usyk-Rico Verhoeven?
Tommy Fury collides with Eddie Hall in a bout billed “Beauty vs. The Beast” at Manchester’s AO Arena, and live on DAZN Pay-Per-View, on Saturday night.
It takes place just three weeks removed from kickboxing legend Rico Verhoeven nearly upsetting unified heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk in what would have been a monumental upset.
Fury and Hall up the tempo
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Now, Fury isn’t of the ilk of Usyk, nor the caliber of his own older brother, Tyson Fury; Hall, the 2017 World’s Strongest Man, is nowhere near the fighting pedigree of Verhoeven. Still, for me, there’s spillover from Usyk-Verhoeven trickling into this Fury vs. Hall fight this weekend and any such crossover boxing bout to come.
That’s because of how we viewed Usyk-Verhoeven entering their unique bout. Despite Verhoeven being a 15-time heavyweight kickboxing world champion — literally using his hands over a storied career — he wasn’t even given a puncher’s chance against Usyk’s brand sweet science brilliance.
Usyk, the reigning unified heavyweight ruler and former two-time undisputed heavyweight crown holder, was installed as a massive favorite by oddsmakers. Yet, it was Verhoeven smothering and taking the fight to Usyk, even leading on a judge's scorecard late. It took Usyk uncorking a picture-perfect uppercut and a controversial quick stoppage by the referee for him to record an 11th-round TKO and, frankly, avoid disaster. Honestly speaking, if Verhoeven was deservedly given the chance to continue the fight, who’s to say he wouldn’t have held on to edge Usyk? That very well could have been the verdict.
So, in retrospect, how did we see this so wrong? Of course, Usyk has been so dominant at heavyweight in defeating Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, and Daniel Dubois twice apiece that we all felt more than comfortable saying he’s going to obliterate Verhoeven. I know that was my call entering the bout, and I thought nothing of it. But through nearly 11 rounds, Verhoeven had managed to do the impossible in outboxing Usyk.
That said, here we are at the cusp of Fury vs. Hall. On Friday, Hall tipped the scale at 325.6 pounds, which was over 100 pounds heavier than Fury’s just over 217.
Fury is the professional boxer, having amassed an 11-0 record (4 KOs). Hall is a retired British strongman with one boxing bout under his belt — a six-round points loss to Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson in their 2022 exhibition bout.
But John Fury, father of Tommy and Tyson, is expecting a proper fight from Hall.
“He’s not a quitter,” John Fury said live on DAZN following Friday’s weigh-in. “And if he’s not going to quit lifting weights, he’s not going to quit in the ring, so he’s going to bring it.”
Footage of Hall against Björnsson showed the former’s penchant to throw haymakers. Some wildly missed their marks, others connected.
Conventional wisdom says Fury should be able to use his boxing ability to have his hand raised. That might explain why Fury is the betting favorite.
However, Usyk-Verhoeven might have been our signal to delve deeper past betting odds, rhetoric, consensus, and sometimes even the eye test.
After all, conventional wisdom is thrown out the window with a crossover boxing fight. Usyk-Verhoeven was proof of that.
Watch Fury vs. Hall exclusively on DAZN
'The Beauty' Tommy Fury fights 'The Beast' Eddie Hall on a great Misfits fight night on Saturday, June 13, exclusively live on DAZN. Buy as a one-off PPV or included, along with Zayas vs. Ennis (June 27), Joshua vs. Prenga (July 25), and Canelo vs. M'billi (Sept 12) PPVs, with a DAZN Ultimate Tier subscription.
