Fury Sr names ‘biggest challenge’ for Fury – and it’s not Usyk, Joshua or Joyce

John Fury believes Zhilei Zhang is the most dangerous fighter that Tyson Fury can face right now. Fury Sr was incredibly impressed by the Chinese puncher’s performances against Filip Hrgovic and Joe Joyce and hopes to see his son square off against the Olympic silver-medallist in the not-so-distant future.

Zhang shocked the boxing world in April as he stopped Joe Joyce in a one-sided beating over six rounds at the Copper Box Arena. The Juggernaut’s face was left in a crimson mess as Zhang’s trademark left straight found its home over and over again.

By the midway stage of the sixth, Joyce’s right eye was completely swollen shut leaving referee Howard Foster with no choice but to wave off the contest to record one of the biggest upsets of the year.

Prior to the bout, it was thought that Fury would box Joyce once he had settled the four-belt shootout with Oleksandr Usyk. But now, Fury Sr believes Zhang is the ‘danger man’.

Speaking to Express Sport via freebets.com, he said: “The fight with Zhang is interesting but we can’t get it. Zhang is a formidable man and he’s a lot tougher than Usyk. You couldn’t write him off, 6 foot 6 southpaw, can bang with either hand, what he does, he does proper and effectively and it showed you with Filip Hrgovic what he can do when he fought Filip Hrgovic and for my money Filip Hrgovic is one of the best out there. He’s in the top five for me without a problem and look what happened there it was a 50-50 fight that could have gone either way.

“So, Zhilei Zhang is a more dangerous fight for any heavyweight out there than Usyk because he’s 20 stone, he’s a southpaw, he’s 6 foot 6 and he’s got balls like King Kong. Joe Joyce is a tough kid and look what happened to him, he got took to pieces, he looked like a weakling in there against that fella. Joyce didn’t look like he was hurting him at all, and Zhang had it all under control from the first bell.”

When asked if Zhang is the biggest challenge for Tyson, Fury Sr replied: “Zhang is every bit as dangerous as Deontay Wilder because he’s a better boxer than Wilder, Zhang can box his way in and land it that’s the difference. Great boxer, good amateur career, he impressed me Zhang. And I was looking forward to him and Tyson getting it on because I said to Tyson, forget Usyk, he’s the danger man him [Zhang] because Usyk doesn’t have the power to bother Tyson.”

However, Zhang’s immediate focus will be on Joyce, who recently activated the rematch clause in their contract. No date or venue for the second fight has been announced as of yet.