By Charles Brun: Unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk says he believes Tyson Fury is “afraid” of him, which is why he doesn’t want to fight him.

WBC champion Fury is made it clear that he wants a fight against Anthony Joshua, and it’s believed that he’s waiting to see if he beats Usyk on August 20th before choosing to come out of retirement.

Fury’s current demand of $500 million to get off his backside to fight the winner of Joshua vs. Usyk II is viewed by boxing fans as a signal that he views Oleksandr as the winner of the rematch.

The 33-year-old Fury wants an absurd amount of money to resume his stalled career, and surprisingly, the WBC hasn’t stripped him of his title. With Fury saying he’s retired, the World Boxing Council should have already stripped him.

“Tyson says he doesn’t want to box me because I’m not at his level. That’s because he’s afraid of me,” said Oleksandr Usyk to iFL TV about WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, who has shown no interest in fighting Usyk.

Many believe that the 6’9″ Fury wants no part of Usyk, as it’s a wrong style match-up for him. The mobility, speed, and boxing ability of Usyk would be difficult for Fury to deal with at this late stage in his career.

You can’t blame the bear-like 270+ lb Fury for wanting no part of fighting Usyk because he no longer has the legs to fight this type of opponent. At 33, Fury’s physique resembles his father’s body during his career, and it would be asking too much of him to get in the ring with a spry heavyweight like Usyk.

“He’s probably kidding,” Usyk said when told that Fury wants $500 million for him to come out of retirement. “$500 million? Who would give him $500 million? I also want $500 million.”

Unfortunately, I don’t think Fury is kidding about wanting $500M to resume his career when it comes to fighting Usyk. The $500 million likely only holds for fighting Usyk, but not Joshua. That’s the guy that Fury wants, and he’d leap off the couch for a fight against the badly flawed AJ.

“It’s not my business. Anthony training and Anthony do,” said Usyk when asked about his thoughts on Joshua bringing in Robert Garcia as his new trainer. “I think about what I do.”

Joshua’s decision to switch trainers from Rob McCracken to Robert Garcia probably won’t help him defeat Usyk because the aggressive style that the new coach wants AJ is a disaster waiting to happen.

Robert doesn’t understand that Joshua lacks the chin and the stamina to fight aggressively in the way he wants.

Any good trainer worth his salt could figure out from watching Joshua’s past fights that he’s not capable of fighting aggressively against a talent like Usyk without quickly running out of gas and getting clipped.