By Scott Gilfoid: The other day it was amusing to see Tyson Fury (24-0, 18 KOs) mentioning himself in the same breath as boxing great Muhammad Ali. I thought it was just a one-time thing with Fury, but now he’s doing it again by continuing to mention himself in the same sentence as the great Ali. But what’s especially sad is that Fury is now talking about potentially retiring after his November 28th fight against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (64-3, 53 KOs) in their fight on Sky Box Office.
Why Fury would want to retire immediately after taking his toughest fight of his career is hard to understand. The boxing fans are whispering that Fury is just looking to cash out with the Wladimir fight, and that’s why he’s talking about retiring.
“I’d say I’m a modern day Muhammad Ali,” Fury said to BBC.com. “I don’t think there’s anybody else like me in boxing in any of the divisions, especially now with Floyd Mayweather retiring and everybody getting on a bit, it’s time for a new era and the new guns to get involved in the division, and that’s me.”
Fury sounds delusional to me. The guy has fought exactly nobody and is getting a world title shot because he beat Dereck Chisora. Fury didn’t need to beat any of the good heavyweights to get a title shot. All he had to do was beat Chisora and guys like Steve Cunningham, Joey Abell, Christian Hammer, Martin Rogan, Nicolai Firtha, Vinny Maddalone, Kevin Johnson, Neven Pajkic and Marcelo Luiz Nascimento.
Fury has zero experience and he’s clearly not ready to be fighting someone in Wladimir or Deontay Wilder’s class. The whole thing reeks of cash out. Fury fights a bunch of 2nd and 3rd tier fodder opponents in order to get his big money fight against Wladimir, and then he immediately retires after he gets blasted into oblivion.
“Depending on if I want to fight on any longer than this next fight or not. I don’t know what the future holds as of yet,” Fury said.
Fury doesn’t seem like he knows what he wants, but you have to take him serious about his retirement talk. When someone is talking about quitting, whether it be in sports or in a profession, it tells you that person doesn’t really like what they’re doing. Fury will probably get enough money from his fight against Wladimir to retire on, and live a comfortable existence as long as he doesn’t live too lavishly.
If he doesn’t want to fight any longer, he can simply cash out after the Klitschko fight and look for some other endeavor. It’s hard to know what Fury could do in terms of a profession. If he doesn’t like any kind of work, then he can live off the money from the Klitschko fight.
“Nobody tells me what to do. On the night, you’ll have the most colorful and controversial fighter since Ali, and that’s what the world is waiting for,” Fury said to skysports.com. “If I ain’t the man to fill the boots, we’ll be waiting for a hell of a long time, because all I see is robots, people being told what to say. So the world needs me to change the heavyweight landscape,” Fury said.
I think the sport already has a potential star in the heavyweight division that can carry boxing on his shoulders for years to come in Deontay Wilder. I don’t think he’s another Ali, but he’s on the cusp of stardom right now. I think Wilder is within 10 to 15 wins away from becoming a monster star in the heavyweight division. He just needs to pick up more scalps to add to his collection, and I think he’ll be there within two to three years. Unfortunately, I don’t see Fury being the guy the fill Ali’s boots, especially with him talking retirement. I fully expect Fury to crumble to pieces if/when he loses to Wladimir this month on November 28th. Instead of Fury looking to learn from the defeat, I see him hanging up the gloves and just flat out giving up. It’ll be sad, yes, but what can you do? Fury’s career has been built on wins over horrible opposition, and he’s not had the right fights to get him even remotely ready to fight a talent like Wladimir.
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