Former super middleweight world champion Carl Froch has cautioned that Tyson Fury would need to be at his very best to overcome the boxing ability of Oleksandr Usyk.

Fury and Usyk were in talks earlier in the year to have an April undisputed showdown. They were unable to reach an agreement on the financial terms for the rematch.

The last time Fury hit the ring was back in December, when he retained the WBC world title with a battering stoppage of Derek Chisora in their trilogy fight.

Usyk is scheduled to defend his WBA, IBF, IBO, WBO titles against mandatory challenger Daniel Dubois in the month of August.

There is a possibility that Fury and Usyk will collide at the end of the year. 

However, Froch worries that Fury will allow himself to get too far out of shape during the downtime. 

"If he gets too out of shape and remains out of the ring for too long, there comes a point of no return where he could find himself in a tough fight against an average opponent. I believe Fury would have the physical advantage over Usyk, but he needs to be in top form, 100 percent focused, and prepared for twelve rounds," Froch told Talk Sport.

"He has to be fit for twelve rounds because if Usyk decides to maintain distance, box smartly, and avoid engaging too much, constantly targeting Fury's body, arms, and chest, and only striking when within range, it could spell a twelve round disaster for Tyson Fury. I'm not entirely convinced he would go straight in against Usyk, and that might be why he priced himself out of the fight."

At the moment, Fury has no scheduled opponent for his next fight. 

“He's talking a big game right now, hyping up all these fights, but nothing is materializing,” said Froch.

“How committed is he to fighting Oleksandr Usyk? Fury is making a lot of noise, but there's been no official agreement. It's becoming increasingly frustrating and annoying to listen to Tyson Fury because we all want to see him fight. I'm not so sure now how serious he truly is about stepping into the ring.”