By Scott Gilfoid: British heavyweight Tyson Fury (20-0, 14 KO’s) may have found the perfect excuse to get out of what will be a dangerous fight for him against Kubrat Pulev later on in 2013 in an IBF heavyweight eliminator bout.
The thing that has changed this for Fury, and perhaps given him the excuse to get out of facing Pulev, is the news of 41-year-old Tony Thompson destroying David Price by a 2nd round last Saturday night. Thompson beat what many boxing fans feel is the best heavyweight in the UK, and beat him with ease.
Fury has since come out of the woodwork to say he wants to fight Thompson after Fury’s April 20th fight against former IBF cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham (25-5, 12 KO’s) at Madison Square Garden Theater, New York, New York, USA.
Thompson wants to fight Fury if no other reason to shut his yap up after all trash talking Fury did about him. Thompson wants to the last remaining unbeaten hyped British heavyweight, and beat him bad. Fury obviously is going to take that fight if he can get past Cunningham.
As for Pulev, he’ll likely be automatically installed as the mandatory challenger by the International Boxing Federation as soon as they catch wind of Fury’s plans of fighting Thompson instead of Pulev. I mean, the IBF aren’t going to make Pulev suffer and wait for five months for Fury to get done with his fight with Thompson before allowing Pulev to fight the IBF eliminator bout.
The only way the IBF won’t install Pulev as the mandatory is if they order #3 IBF Byrant Jennings to face Pulev in the IBF eliminator. I actually see that as a much better fight than a Pulev vs. Fury fight because Jennings actually has the skills to possibly beat Pulev if he can get on top of him and throw combinations. Pulev has a great jab, but he can be outworked by a busy fighter like Jennings.
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