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Tyson Fury needs to beat Joshua and Usyk to be in heavyweight GOAT debate

Andy Clarke spoke to Planet Sport about Tyson Fury after some high profile wins in recent years.

Tyson Fury is considered the best fighter of his generation but when it comes to the greatest of all-time, that is one to be debated about.

Muhammad Ali is regarded as the GOAT of the heavyweight division while Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey, Rocky Marciano and Mike Tyson are also ranked highly.

Today, heavyweight fighters are taller, heavier and have the benefit of science and technology to enhance their performance and according to Andy Clarke, those reasons make it hard to compare fighters from another era to Fury.
"Comparing fighters across eras is good fun and everything, I can understand why people do it, I do it myself because I don't want to come across as a total killjoy - but it's a bit pointless really because all you can ever do is do the best in your era and fight the people who are around when you're around," Clarke told Planet Sport.
"It's a really basic thing to say but it's just a fact. People can criticise Wladimir Klitschko and say 'the standard wasn't there when he champions for 10 years but what's he supposed to do about that.
"People even say the same thing about Lennox Lewis and you look back at the kind of fighters that were around when Lennox Lewis was around in that chaotic crazy heavyweight scene in the 1990s, there were loads of good fighters.
"And then people would say about Mike Tyson and then it would just go on and on and on. The only period in which people seem happy to admit that there was a really high level of competition is when you go back to Ali and Frazier and Norton and Foreman and all of those guys and I just don't agree with it.
"That was definitely a golden era but it's not like there were no good fighters ever after that and whoever was champion since then couldn't hold a candle to those guys, I just don't believe that.

"I think Fury, maybe you could put him in the top 10 if he beats Usyk and maybe he does fight Joshua after that and beats him," Clarke added when asked where Fury ranks in the GOAT list.

"He'll have done absolutely everything after that point. It's all very subjective, maybe you could put him towards the top 10 but it's all so hypothetical."

Fury is yet to confirm if he will return to the ring after announcing he would retire following his win over Dillian Whyte.

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