By Scott Gilfoid: Former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury took to Twitter last Monday to say that he’ll be resuming his career on May 13, but it looks like the 28-year-old spoke too soon. According to the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC), Fury is still under suspension and he’s not about to get his license to fight back anytime soon. Fury has an anti-doping hearing that he needs to get out of the way before the BBBoC will consider giving him back his license.
Judging by Fury’s posts on social media on Monday, he appears to want to get back in the ring and resume his career. He’s been out of the ring for close to 2 years now since he pulled off a major upset in defeating former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko by a 12 round decision in November 2015. Fury could have made massive amounts of money in a rematch with Wladimir if he’d taken it. Fury gave up most of his heavyweight titles.
“My understanding is a fact – he’s suspended, so that’s it,” BBBofC general secretary Robert Smith said to skysports.com. ”He’s got a number of issues to consider before we even consider lifting a suspension.”
So there it is. Fury has a number of issues that he needs to get out of the way before he can get his suspension by the BBBofC lifted. I hope Fury didn’t have his hopes up for him returning to the ring in May like he’d been talking about. It doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.
Apparently, Fury won’t be able to get an Irish license for the Boxing Union in Ireland either according to reports. Fury didn’t say whether he was going to go that route to try and get his license to fight, but it looks like he won’t be able to use that method. If Fury was considering going in that direction to get a license to fight, it might not work.
“We’ve not had any contact with Mr. Fury or any of his team since he was suspended. We understand there is a hearing taking place for anti-doping, and until that matter is dealt with, the suspension will stay in place,” said Smith.
Look at the bright side. If Fury doesn’t get his boxing license back for a little while longer, it’ll at least give him time to burn off more of the weight that he’s put on since he’s been out of the ring. If takes Fury 6-12 months to eventually get his license back, he should be in tip top shape by that time and ready to fight without him carrying around a spare tire around his midsection.
The last thing that Fury needs is for him to return to the ring too quickly and without all the weight having been lost. If Fury comes into the ring weighing over 300lbs, I can’t see him beating anyone good. It all depends though in what Fury’s goal is for his comeback. I mean, if all Fury wants to do is get a big cash out payday fight against Anthony Joshua, then it probably doesn’t matter if he comes into the fight still flabby and out of shape.
He’ll get a big payday and he can choose to retire afterwards if that’s what he wants to do with his career. But if Fury is serious about wanting to try and really win back his heavyweight world titles, then he’s going to need to get down to at least 255 lbs. for him to have a chance of winning.
Fury needs to be mobile because he doesn’t have any punching power to speak of. He’s not going to be able to be mobile if he’s trying to fight while carrying around an extra 50 lbs. of fat on his 6’9” frame.