By Scott Gilfoid: After narrowly winning the IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight titles last November in beating the over-the-hill looking 39-year-old Wladimir Klitschko by an incredibly boring 12 round unanimous decision, Britain’s Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) isn’t sure if he’ll fight again. Fury appears to be having motivation problems in trying to decide whether to get back into the ring and continue with his career.
Fury feels that he accomplished all that he wanted to accomplish by capturing a world title, and he doesn’t seem too eager to get back into the ring and defend it against Wladimir in a rematch or face some of the hungry contenders or fight WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in a unification match.
What Fury is finding out is that it’s one thing in barely beating an old almost 40-year-old Klitschko, but it’s another thing having to defend those titles against the young hungry lions that want to rip his head off.
Deontay for one wants to KO Fury, and he feels he’ll do the job on him if he ever agrees to the fight.
Fury is blabbering about handing everything over to the unproven Anthony Joshua, a fighter that was almost knocked out in his last fight. I don’t know how Fury can hand it over to a guy that likely won’t be able to hold onto the titles any longer than he could. Joshua is very, very flawed and he turn out to be little more than another Audley Harrison once he starts facing quality fighters that don’t wind up blowing out their shoulders in the 2nd round and gassing out like we saw with Joshua’s last opponent Dillian Whyte.
“Peter [Fury, his uncle and trainer] knew that and knows that. Then again, I might have another fight again. It depends on how I feel,” Fury said to skysports.com. “What it is, is I just need more time because it’s only eight weeks since I won the title. I’m still training but I’ve not been back in the boxing ring since that day.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYTQWq997n0
If Fury retires now or after one or two fights, it would be kind of like what former super middleweight champion Carl Froch did. He started getting the bigger paydays against Mikkel Kessler and George Groves, and then the next thing you know it, he retired. Then you have former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye, who disappeared not long after getting big paydays against Wladimir Klitschko and Dereck Chisora.
Haye was out of the ring for four years, and only now has resurfaced after all this time. It’s unclear why Haye came back. Was it because of a need for money? Will he disappear again after he gets another big payday?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO_qeew5iR4
“If I don’t box again, there’s Anthony Joshua you’ve got and he will be big box office. Look at what he’s done already,” Fury said. “I’ve not cemented that I am not going to fight again but I am genuinely contemplating not fighting again. What am I going to get if I fight again? A few more pound coins. I already battered Klitschko properly. I out-boxed him out in Germany in a unanimous decision.”
I personally find Fury’s wishy-washy, lackadaisical approach to his boxing career more than a little off-putting. What happened to the old world until you drop attitude that we see in hard-working people in every country on the earth. Where is that attitude in Fury? I don’t see it. Would Fury really be satisfied in retiring now and walking away from what would likely be tens of millions of dollars?
Fury could easily make $10 million or more if he stuck around and fought the likes of Wladimir, Deontay Wilder, David Haye and Anthony Joshua. Granted, I’m not sure that Fury can beat any of those guys, but at least he would get the coin from the fights. Fury could then hit the reset button on his career and reload for other big fights. Yeah, I find it more than a little disturbing when I see a fighter get one or two big paydays, and then they want to walk away from the sport so that they can sit on the couch, or travel around the world without having to work hard any longer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQGtUf9olu0
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