By Scott Gilfoid: Eddie Hearn wants Tyson Fury to set down with him so they can put together a summer fight against IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) can now fight again after the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) gave him a verbal clearance.
The 29-year-old Fury still needs to give the BBBofC medical records before he’s given full clearance to fight again. Fury’s comeback will be in April or May. Shannon Briggs wants a shot at Fury, but that might be too good of an opponent for him. Briggs, 46, is a body puncher at this stage in his career, and he’d have a big target to go after with Fury’s basketball-sized belly. Briggs would ignore Fury’s head and just target his midsection and have him in trouble before long.
It’s nice that Fury has a new trainer in Ben Davidson, but I don’t see that as being enough to improve him in any real way. I don’t matter who Fury is being trained by. If he can’t take a punch to the midsection, he’s going to be on the canvas gasping for breath after he gets nailed by one of Brigg’s left hooks to the body.
In the meantime, Hearn is chomping at the bit to make the Joshua-Fury fight for the summer. Hearn says he wants Fury to take some tune-up fights before then, and he’s hoping he looks good in those matches. Hearn realizes that the Joshua-Fury fight will be perceived as a joke if Fury is laboring to beat his opponents in his tune-up fights, which is likely to happen.
Given that Fury hasn’t fought in 2 ½ years, he’s going to need to get a number of fights under his belt for him to have a chance against Joshua or any halfway decent heavyweight in the division. As fat as Fury has been looking lately, he’s not going to last more than 1 round against Joshua. That’s a positive for Joshua and Hearn, because they can get an easy win over Fury, but it’s a big negative for the boxing fans that waste their money ordering the Joshua-Fury fight on Sky Box Office.
“It could happen in the summer,” said Hearn to skysports.com. “If he wants to go straight into that fight, no problem for Anthony Joshua. He should have some warm-up fights but if he looks bad in them, it decreases the value of the fight and it might decrease the interest for the fight,” Hearn said.
Look at Hearn is willing to go make the Joshua-Fury straightway. Hopefully, Joshua takes a stand and lets Hearn know he won’t have any of it. He’ll only face an in shape, well-tuned Fury or not Fury at all. It’s Joshua’s career. If he wants to receive credit for being the one that smashes Fury to smithereens, he’s going to need to insist that he takes at least 3 to 4 good tune-ups before he faces him. I’m talking tune-ups against guys like Dereck Chisora, Dillian Whyte and Tony Bellew. Those guys should give an indication of whether Fury is in tip top shape or not.