By Scott Gilfoid: Former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) should be back inside the ring in April or May of 2017, according to his trainer Peter Fury. The 28-year-old Fury is back in training and working on taking weight off to get ready for his comeback.
Whether the British Boxing Board of Control will allow Fury back at that time is unclear. The 6’9” former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Fury is taking care of some personal problems that led to him vacating his titles rather than facing Wladimir Klitschko in a big money rematch.
Peter wants Fury to fight WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder for his title. However, it remains to be seen whether he’ll take that fight in 2017. Fury is expected to take two or three tune-up fight when he comes back, because he hasn’t fought since his 12 round unanimous decision win over Klitschko last year in November 2015. That was a long time ago.
Fury has to make up for all that lost ring time by taking some tune-ups. If he goes into a fight with Wilder straightaway, he’ll likely get knocked out. Wilder is too good for Fury to be facing him off of a long layoff. Besides that, Fury and his management will probably look for he bigger cash out fight against IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua rather than take on Wilder.
Peter said this to 4c Sports Media, Peter said that Tyson will “have a couple of fights, two or three” first. “As we speak now, he’s with his brother, he’s with his father and he’s training every day. He’s running, he’s training and he’s asking when I’m back in the gym. Expect Tyson back in the ring around April/May time next year – he’ll be back. He’s coming back to not only get the belts, but to prove that he is the only heavyweight in the world. He’ll have a couple of fights – two or three – and he’ll be back fighting for the belts. I’d like to see Tyson fight Wilder. I think that’s a massive fight across the pond. I think that would turn into a super-fight. That’s a fight we want anyway.”
I get the feeling that Fury is pretty much past it at this point in his career. I hate to say it, but with Fury having been out of the ring for over a year, and with him putting on all the weight that he’s packed on, I can’ see him ever regaining the form that he had before.
Look, by the time that Fury does resume his boxing career, he’ll have been out of the ring for close to two year. That’s not good news for Fury or for any fighter that lacks a big punch. The fighters that come off long layoffs, they don’t do well unless they have a lot of punching power. The light hitters don’t seem to do as well. I have a feeling that Fury has pretty much had his brief 15 minutes of fame.
At this point, I see Fury getting wiped out against the first decent heavyweight he faces. Heck, Fury should have been destroyed by Klitschko if the Ukrainian had just thrown some punches instead of fighting like a timid rabbit for 12 rounds. That fight showed clearly that Wladimir has nothing left in the tank at 40-years-old. He’s over-the-hill in my estimation, and he’s not going to be able to find his long lost youth in time for his fight against IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on April 29.
Billy Joe Saunders and his promoter looking forward to Canelo fight in May 2017
WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (24-0, 12 KOs) and his promoter Frank Warren are looking forward to getting the May 6 fight against #1 newly installed WBO mandatory challenger Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs). In controversial move, the WBO moved Canelo ahead of No.1 Avtandil Khurtsidze despite Canelo never having fought at the full 160lb weight in the middleweight division before.
Saunders is coming off of an awful 12 round unanimous decision win over fringe contender Artur Akavov (16-2, 7 KOs) on December 3 at the Lagoon Leisure Center, in Paisley, Scotland. Saunders fought well enough to lose on my scorecard, as well as the cards of many boxing fans that saw the fight. The judges gave Saunders the win by the scores 116-113, 116-112, and 115-113.
Warren said this to IFL TV about Saunders vs. Canelo on May 6:
“The WBO has installed him as the mandatory, but he hasn’t vacated his title, his light middleweight title yet,” said Saunders’ promoter Frank Warren about Canelo. “So that’s a fight that we, Bill, Certainly want, and we want it as well.”
In speaking about the Canelo vs. Saunders fight taking place on May 6 on Cinco de Mayo holiday weekend, Warren said, “That makes sense, because that’s how to maximize income for that fight to make it work. That’s the fight we want and that’s the fight we’re going to get. It’s unfortunate the WBA ordered the [Daniel] Jacobs fight otherwise he’d be fighting [Gennady] Golovkin. That’s a great fight,” said Warren.
It’s still not a done deal that Saunders will get the fight against Canelo in May. We’re going to find out next week if he’s got the fight or not. The other fighter that Golden Boy Promotions is interested in matching against Canelo is former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has been given a $6 million guaranteed offer for the fight.
Chavez Jr. and his manager Al Haymon have until next week to decide whether they’ll agree to the offer or not. If they don’t, then the fight will be given to the 27-year-old Saunders. Chavez Jr. is the first option for Canelo and Golden Boy, as he’ll bring in A LOT more money than Saunders will on HBO PPV.
The only reason Canelo is interested in fighting Saunders is to win his WBO middleweight title off of him. Winning that belt isn’t going to mean anything as far as the boxing public goes. There are too many titles nowadays and being a champion has lost its meaning entirely. The only thing that Canelo accomplish in taking Saunders’ WBO strap from him is having a shiny prop belt to have displayed by his entourage as he makes his ring walk to the ring when/if he fights Golovkin in September 2017.
That’s a big IF, because Canelo might not get the Golovkin fight or WANT it. If Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy stick with the flat fee offer of $15 million for Golovkin instead of the percentage deal Golovkin’s management are asking for, then the fight might not get made in 2017. I don’t know if Golden Boy will lose much sleep at the Golovkin fight not taking place, because it would allow Canelo to dodge a potentially embarrassing/career ending knockout loss.
With Golovkin out of the way, Golden Boy can slide the Miguel Cotto rematch from December to September. That fight will probably bring in a lot of PPV buys on HBO, even though Canelo already made it clear last year that Cotto is WAY too small for him in terms of weight. Canelo looked huge compared to the smallish looking Cotto in the ring in that fight.
“If that kind of performance comes from me again, I’ll give them my belt and retire,” said Saunders in response to his poor performance against Akavov. “That’s how confident that will never happen again. What I’m doing now is Canelo. Golovkin is fighting Danny Jacobs. So Canelo is moving up. He’s becoming the mandatory position for the WBO. Let’s fight him. It’ll be an easy fight for him off the last performance. Walk me down, and stop me in two or three rounds. It should be an easy fight, and he’s got the belt for the super fight for Golovkin. I’ve got two mandatories for me.”
Saunders should have lost the fight to Akavov. If he wanted to give someone his WBO belt for a performance, he should have given it to Akavov. He deserved the title. I had Akavov winning a clear decision. The fight took place in the UK though. I never thought for a second that Akavov had any chance of winning a decision against Saunders, and I ended up being right.
There’s little chance that Saunders will get out of 2017 with his WBO title still in his possession. If Canelo doesn’t take his WBO title from him in 2017, then the substitute mandatory Khurtsidze will do the job and take it from him. Either way, I see Saunders ending up beltless by the end of next year.