By Scott Gilfoid: Former heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury was out in the public this past weekend, letting boxing fans know that he intends on resuming his career once he gets his boxing license back.
This is a sudden reversal of the news from the Fury front from last July when he was blabbering about retiring from the sport on his social media site. It’s surprising how quickly Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) changes his mind about his career.
Fury, 29, hasn’t fought in 2 years since pulling off an upset of then heavyweight world champion Wladimir Klitschko in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision on November 28, 2015. It was ugly slapping and running affair by Fury in winning a fight by spoiling for 12 rounds against a totally reluctant Wladimir, who looked like he didn’t want to be there on the night.
“I think they are all bums,” said Fury via the dailystar.com in talking about the top heavyweights in the sport today. “I reckon personally on my night in the heavyweight division I think I’m capable of beating anybody. I don’t fear nobody – and especially not some pumped up weightlifter. That’s for sure. I am what you call the pitbull of the fighting game”
Fury’s mention of a “pumped up weightlifter” is clearly a reference to the heavily muscled IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, who looks more like a bodybuilder nowadays than the fighter that turned pro 4 years ago after winning a controversial gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics. Joshua is the fighter that Fury has been yapping about for ages now. It’s forlorn the way Fury constantly talks about wanting to fight Joshua. It’s like a dog that has a hold of an old bone that he won’t let go of. Fury just keeps going on about the Joshua fight as if it will somehow validate his stalled out career. If Fury would come back and fight Deontay Wilder, then that would really open the eyes of the boxing public to show them he’s serious about wanting to continue his career. Unfortunately, Fury wants to come back and take that fight with Joshua, which could make him a boatload of green stuff.
The only thing that’s keeping Fury from making his comeback is him not having his boxing license, and perhaps 100+ pounds of fat that he needs to take off to get down to his old fighting weight of 250 lbs. Fury looks like he’s walking around at well over 300 lbs. now. He looks obese to the point where I would seriously question whether he could ever take that weight off and fight at even a fraction of the level that he once could. Of course, it probably doesn’t matter if Fury can’t fight a lick anymore, because he surely won’t be required to fight a tune-up to get the mega-clash against Joshua.
I’m sure Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn would prefer that Fury take a few tune-ups in order to build interest in the Fury vs. Joshua fight, but if he’s not interested in doing that, they sure as heck aren’t going to turn up their noses at the idea of putting together the Joshua-Fury fight with him coming off of a 2-year layoff. Heck, Wladimir fought Joshua and almost beat him coming off of a 2-year layoff earlier this year on April 29. Maybe we could see Fury do the same thing. Nonetheless, it’s a going to be a lot harder for Fury to fight at a high level like Wladimir did due to all the weight that he needs to take off. Wladimir didn’t get fat during his 2 years out of the ring. It was a lot easier for Wladimir to comeback from that layoff than it will be for Fury, even though he’s a lot younger than the 41-year-old Wladimir was.
“I am what you call the pitbull of the fighting game. People wanna see it,” said Fury. ”When I get my license back and I get fit again and I get this five stone off – what did Schwarzenegger say? ‘I’ll be back’.”
So, Fury is saying he’s only got 70 lbs. to lose before he’s at his old fighting weight. I don’t know. He looks like he’s got more than to lose, but whatever. If it’s 70 pounds of blubber, it’s still a ton of weight for a professional athlete to lose before fighting an important fight like a match against Joshua. However, I’m looking at the Joshua vs. Fury fight in the wrong way. I’m thinking in terms of it being a REAL fight and not just an event. But clearly that’s what I think the fight would be if Fury does comeback for a match against Joshua. It would be an event fight rather than a real fight in my view. Fury and Joshua would be the equivalent of Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor. It would be a mismatch that the British boxing public would be tripping over themselves to see, and there would be more than a few unhappy fans afterwards when it turns out to be a total farce. Unless Joshua carries Fury for 10 rounds like Mayweather did against McGregor in their fight on August 26, the boxing fans would be hopping mad about it being a total rip off fight. Honestly, I don’t see it as a good career move for Joshua to take a fight against Fury with him coming off of a 2 to 3 year layoff.
Joshua needs to stand on his principals and insist that Fury fight at least 3 tune-ups to sharpen him up and show the boxing public that they’re not looking to fleece them royally. It doesn’t hurt Fury’s career if the fans are upset about a rip off mismatch against AJ, but it sure does hurt Joshua. He’s the one that will be sticking around to have to deal with the fallout from a fight against Fury. Joshua intends on fighting another 10+ years before he retires. He needs to insist that Fury get in shape and show the boxing world that he’s capable of beating some contenders to earn a title shot properly rather than having it given to him on a silver platter jus based on his popularity.
Here’s what Fury said on his Instagran last July in announcing his retirement from boxing:
“Been very blessed in my life & career achieve the utmost in boxing, was an epic journey along the way. Thanks to all the fans that supported & believed in me along the way, Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. THE END.”
The only thing that was missing from this announcement was sad violin music to make it more drama-filled.
Fury will be meeting with the UK Anti-Doping in October to see if he can get approved to return to boxing.
Fury has been talking about making a comeback to the sport for such a long time, I don’t know if he’ll be believed by the boxing fans at this point. It would be better if Fury just kept a low profile until he gets his approval to fight again, if he ever does. If Fury can get approved, take off the weight that he’s put on and get some wins under his belt, and then we could see him and big Joshua battle it out at Wembley Stadium in the future. I’m not holding my breath waiting for that to ever happen though.