'Tyson Fury should fight Murat Gassiev instead,' says Kostya Tszyu

Hall of Famer Kostya Tszyu believes there is another fight that makes sense for Tyson Fury if the proposed bout with Anthony Joshua doesn’t happen. 

Tszyu believes WBA heavyweight beltholder Murat Gassiev should get the call to face the big former unified champion, who defeated Mariusz Wach in a rust-shedding exercise in Thailand on Friday.

“I would love to watch Gassiev vs. Fury… Murat and Tyson should actually face each other,” Tszyu said.

“In that fight, Murat would just do everything he needs to do, and that's it. There are people who are called trash-talkers. I can’t say for sure whether Fury is just a talker or not, because he has backed up a lot of what he said.

“Fury is a good boxer, and someone has to do the talking, but what does it mean that Gassiev was ‘gifted’ the title? Did they just hand him the belt without any fights? Gassiev competed and won. Murat earned what he has.

“Gassiev is an athlete who should just go out there and do his job. Everything that happens outside the ring shouldn’t be his concern at all.

“Now, I would love to watch the Gassiev vs. Fury fight, or Gassiev vs. Usyk II. Seeing a rematch would be very interesting; surely something has changed by now.”

Gassiev is 34-2 (27 KOs) and has won his last four since a 2023 slit decision loss to Swede Otto Wallin.

He won the vacant WBA regular heavyweight title against Kubrat Pulev in Dubai in December and, after Oleksandr Usyk relinquished his three tiles to make Gassiev the lone WBA ruler, made his first defense against Peter Kadiru, who came in as a substitute for Tony Yoka, in July.

Gassiev lost to Usyk when they were both cruiserweights in 2018.

Fury, conversely, was not ringside to watch Anthony Joshua twice climb from the canvas to stop Kristian Prenga in Saudi Arabia on Saturday. The 37-year-old improved to 36-2-1 (25 KOs) with his win over Wach, which came in the seventh round.