By Dan Ambrose: Once again, unbeaten heavyweight Tyson Fury (10-0, 8 KO’s) vowed to retire from boxing if he gets beaten by Big John McDermott (25-6, 16 KO’s) on Saturday night in their fight for the vacant BBBofC English heavyweight title at the Brentwood Centre, in Brentwood, Essex.
While being interviewed by Steve Bunce on his boxing show, Fury had this to say about his important fight on Friday night against McDermott: “Going to hang them up and be a male model if lose.”
Fury also said he’d like to fight BBBofC British heavyweight champion Derek Chisora (13-0, 8 KO’s) next within six months. Fury said “I want a bit of Derek Chisora. If I beat John McDermott tomorrow, I’ll fight Derek Chisora in six months.”
Speaking about his controversial 10 round decision win over McDermott last year in September, Fury said “It wasn’t that he [McDermott] performed well, it’s that I performed like rubbish.” Fury intends on fighting much better in their rematch on Friday night. With his back against the wall, Fury has to fight a lot better, because his career is literally on the line in this fight.
Fury seems to be telling the truth by saying he’s going to be retiring from boxing if he loses to McDermott. He’s said recently that if he can only be a domestic fighter, then what’s the use in fighting? This is true. If Fury can’t even beat the best domestic heavyweights like McDermott, Chisora and David Price, then he might want to consider hanging up the gloves because that will limit how much money that Fury can make if he’s only going to be a small time attraction limited only to the UK and to certain opponents that he can beat.
Fury has look a lot better than he did last time out against McDermott if he wants to win the fight. Referee Terry O’Conner gave Fury the win last time out by a 98-92 score, but the judges might be willing to give Fury the nod if the fight is close and he doesn’t prove that he’s the better man this time. Fury has packed on 23 pounds of mostly muscle since his fight with McDermott, and looks completely different at 270 compared to the 247 he weighed for the first fight in September.
It’s remarkable how much Fury’s physique has changed in such a short period of time. It’s only been nine months since he last fought McDermott, yet Fury is a lot bigger now and looks much sturdier than last time. Whether this will translate to Fury having more power is debatable. We’ll have to see about that.
The added muscle might not help Fury at all, and could end up hurting him if he runs out of gas in the later rounds. However, the added size may help him when in close to the 254 pound McDermott. In their last fight, McDermott looked like the stronger righter and was able to rough the taller, slender Fury around on the inside. At 270, Fury may be able to reverse this by manhandling McDermott this time around.
Comments are closed.