Fury goes after Irish strap next Saturday in fight against 40-year-old Rogan

By Boxing News - 04/07/2012 - Comments

Image: Fury goes after Irish strap next Saturday in fight against 40-year-old RoganBy William Mackay: Heavyweight Tyson Fury (17-0, 12 KO’s) marches to the beat of his own drum. Instead of going after a much bigger fight against David Price in defending his British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles, Fury gave up both of his titles and is now going after the vacant Irish heavyweight title against 40-year-old Martin Rogan (14-2, 7 KO’s) next Saturday night a the Odyssey Arena, in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The 23-year-old Fury says that this fight is his Olympics, more important than a fight against one of the Klitshko brothers. It’s hard to really digest all of that, when few people outside of Ireland care about the Irish heavyweight title. It certainly isn’t a world title or a title that will bring Fury any real money. And it just looks like Fury underachieving by going back to fighting guys that are behind him in the progression of his career. Think of it as someone in school going backwards instead of forwards in order to do better than guys that are in the lower grades.

Fury’s opponent, Martin Rogan, is 40-years-old and has already been exposed twice by Sam Sexton in consecutive losses in 2009. Rogan has lowered his sights since those disappointing defeats and has won two fights against Yavor Marinchev (5-20) and Werner Kreiskott (8-14-1). It just doesn’t make sense for Fury to be fighting a guy like Rogan at this time in Fury’s career. This is a fight that Fury would be better off waiting on until later in his career when there is actually someone a little better than Rogan for Fury to fight. Ideally, Fury should have fought for the Irish strap in the first year of his career rather than four years into it where it has no meaning.

If Fury loses this fight, he’s pretty much sunk his chances of getting a title fight and a big payday against one of the Klitschko brothers. Losing to a 2nd tier heavyweight like Rogan isn’t acceptable for a world class contender like Fury. That’s why he would have been better off not taking the fight in the first place. Rogan has nothing to lose and will be swinging for the fences from round one, and Fury has already been exposed as having a weak chin. It likely won’t happen because Rogan is getting pretty old now and hasn’t jack since 2009, but you never know. The fight is a horrible to make, though, and I can’t see an American promoter making a fight like this with an American heavyweight. But it’s what Fury wanted. I hope he’s not disappointed when there isn’t a lot of favorable praise for him after he beats the 40-year-old Rogan and wins the Irish heavyweight strap. No one will care because it’s something that’s not highly sought after.



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