By Scott Gilfoid: Tyson Fury has revealed tonight that he’s vacated his WBA/WBO/IBO heavyweight titles so that other fighters can fight for the belts. Fury, 28, will now looking to get medical treatment to take care of his problems. Fury revealed recently that he was ‘medically unfit’ to fight. His trainer Peter Fury believes that he can make a return next year possibly.
Fury defeated Wladimir Klitschko last November by a 12 round unanimous decision to win the IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight titles in Dusseldorf, Germany. Wladimir had a rematch clause in the contract, and they were supposed to fight the rematch on July 9 this year.
Fury pulled out of the fight with a foot injury. The fight was scheduled for October 29, but Fury pulled out of that fight as well on September 23.
The news of Fury vacating his titles has to be seen as a positive for boxing. Now Klitschko and IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua can fight for the WBA belt, and the unbeaten Joseph Parker and Andy Ruiz Jr. can fight for the WBO title. Both fights are expected to take place in December.
Fury said this via Fight News –
“I feel that it is only fair and right and for the good of boxing to keep the titles active and allow the other contenders to fight for the vacant belts that I proudly won and held as the undefeated heavyweight champion of the world when I defeated the long-standing champion Wladimir Klitschko,” said Tyson.
Fury is a good one for vacating rather than having the sanctioning bodies strip him of his titles, which might have taken a couple of weeks more. Fury can always come back and fight for one or both of the belts once he takes care of his medical problems. It won’t be an issue for Fury to get a quick title shot due to his popularity. He’ll be able to pick and choose whichever title he wants to go after.
It would be interesting to see if the titles can totally unified by the time Fury eventually returns to the ring in the future if he returns. There’s a lot of money for the 6’9” Fury to make when he does return to the ring to challenge for a title. He obviously won’t get the same cut of the revenue that he would have gotten as the champion had he defended his titles against Wladimir on October 29, but he’ll still be able to make a great deal of money none the less.
“I won the titles in the ring and I believe that they should be lost in the ring, but I’m unable to defend at this time and I have taken the hard and emotional decision to now officially vacate my treasured World titles and wish the next in-line contenders all the very best as I now enter another big challenge in my life which I know, like against Klitschko, I will conquer.”
If Fury never fights again, he can at least go out as still unbeaten with his in over Wladimir being the last time he fought. Fury said it himself that he was totally satisfied with what he had accomplished with his boxing career, and if he never fought again, he would be totally happy.
Beating Wladimir was the crown achievement in his mind. He feels that nothing he could do in the ring would top that win, and he’s right. Wladimir was the top heavyweight in boxing for close to a decade until Fury came along and knocked him off his throne. Fury can leave the sport satisfied that he was never beaten by anyone if he decides not to return to the ring in the future.
Fury’s trainer Peter Fury said this about Fury potentially returning to boxing in the future:
“Tyson will be back stronger from this and I will make sure, no matter what we have to deal with, Tyson not only comes back but will reclaim what’s rightfully his. I’m very proud of my nephew’s achievements.”
If Fury does resume his career, then he’s going to need to be able to focus entirely on the sport without distraction. If he’s not into fighting any longer, then we’ll likely see less than good results from him. In the meantime, it would be a good idea for Fury not to gain too much weight while he’s out of the ring.
If he’s forced to take off over 100 pounds when he does start training again in 2017, it’s going to limit his success. Taking off a tremendous amount of weight to would be extremely hard. If Fury is smart, he’ll stay within 50 pounds of his fighting weight. I’m not sure if he can do that, but it would be the smart thing for him to do.
We don’t want to see Fury balloon up to 400 pounds while out of the ring, and then have to fight to get back down to the 250s. George Foreman gained a great deal of weight when he retired for a 10 year period. He was never able to take the weight all off when he did return. Surprisingly, Foreman was still able to capture a world title in his comeback when he stepped Michael Moorer. It’s unclear whether Fury will be able to do the same thing if he packs on the pounds.
Fury’s promoter Mick Hennessy said via Fight News –
“Tyson will still be the linear World Heavyweight Champion in everyone’s’ eyes. He beat the most dominant champion in the modern era of boxing on an amazing night in Germany to earn that accolade and that will never change. Whilst it’s heartbreaking to see Tyson vacate the world titles that he worked so long and hard for all his life, what’s paramount now is that he receives the medical treatment along with the love of his family and friends and the support of the boxing world to make a full recovery.”
I don’t agree with Hennessy that Fury will be seen as the heavyweight champion in the eyes of the boxing public. I think Fury will be seen as a popular former world champion who is trying to get his life together.