By Jeff Aranow: IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) says there are only two big money fights out there for him once he beats 40-year-old Wladimir Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) in their scheduled rematch on July 9 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK.
As far as money fights go, Fury sees only newly crowned IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (16-0, 16 KOs) and WBC champion Deontay Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) is big money makers for him. Fury, 27, says he’ll never give David Haye a fight no matter how much money the fight would make.
Fury says he’s set for life and doesn’t need to work another day if he doesn’t want to. Fury just wants the Joshua and Wilder fights because he can make a ton of money in those fights.
“The biggest fights are [WBC champion] Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua,” said Fury to skysports.com. “There’s only those two fights that could generate that money. “I’ve already secured my future. If I never box again I don’t have to work again until I die – 100 years or whatever – so I’m just securing grandkids and their kids now.”
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn believes that Fury will elect to fight Joshua this November if he gets past Klitschko in July. It makes sense for Fury to take the Joshua fight first before he faces Wilder because the Joshua fight will make more money for Fury. Both fights are risky, but the bigger money will be against Joshua. This is why it makes sense for Fury to take that fight rather than letting it marinate for some time.
Fury will need to take the fight against Joshua because the World Boxing Association is going to order Fury to face interim WBA champion Luis “The Real King Kong” Ortiz as part of their tournament. If Fury agrees to face Ortiz, he could very well get knocked out or beaten by a decision. By the same token, if Fury vacates his WBA title rather than facing Ortiz, he’ll be seen as ducking the fight against the big 6’4” Cuban, and that’ll make him look bad in the eyes of a lot of fans.
Fury is stuck between a rock and a hard place in holding onto the WBA title. He might be better off vacating the belt now before the World Boxing Association orders him to fight Ortiz.
“I’ve already beaten the best man there is and was, so I have no motivation,” said Fury about Klitschko. “Whoever they put in front of me I’ll fight, but they’ve got nothing that I want. Only money – they’re going to give me money to do it, so I’ll do it. If they offered me £200m to fight that man with no name I wouldn’t fight him,” Fury said about Haye.
By the time Fury beat Wladimir, he was clearly no longer the best fighter in the heavyweight division like he’d been years earlier. Wladimir has been slipping for a while now, but he really lost it in his last two fights against Bryant Jennings and Fury. Wladimir now looks like an over the hill fighter. Fury beat old man.
If Fury faces Joshua and loses in November, he can still probably face Deontay in his next fight if Deontay gets past Alexander Povetkin in their fight on May 21 in Moscow, Russia. Even if Fury loses to Joshua, it would still be a good fight between Wilder and Fury. Wilder doesn’t have a lot of options for big money fights other than Joshua and Fury. For that reason, I believe Joshua will agree to fight Fury even if he’s coming off a loss.
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