By Scott Gilfoid: It looks like Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) is set to lose his Ring Magazine heavyweight title if he doesn’t schedule a fight by February. Ring Magazine editor in chief Doug Fischer looks to be poised to make a move in changing out Fury for someone else.
(Photo credit: Ricky Hatton’s Twitter)
The guy that will likely replace Fury at No.1 is IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, who is rated #1 in the Ring Magazine heavyweight rankings. WBC champion Deontay Wilder is rated No.2. Those 2 heavyweights have upcoming title defenses in March. Wilder is defending his WBC belt against 3 WBC Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz on March 3 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Joshua will be facing the always dangerous WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker (24-0, 18 KOs) in a unification fight on March 31, at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Parker is rated #3 and Ortiz #5 in the Ring heavyweight rankings. Depending on how the Joshua-Parker and Wilder-Ortiz fights turn out, we could see one of those guys take over as the Ring heavyweight champion.
”Fury needs to get a fight on the schedule asap. We can’t go into February still not knowing when or who the lineal champ will fight,” said Fischer in his column at RingTV.com on Monday.
Oh boy, Fischer just shot cannon fire across the bow of Tyson Fury’s sinking ship, didn’t he? It’s painfully obvious that Fury, 29, is about to be royally stripped of his Ring Magazine title if he doesn’t schedule a fight pronto before February 1. Unfortunately for Fury, he still doesn’t have his boxing license to fight. The British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) will be meeting in late January on the 27th to decide Fury’s case, whether to grant him his license or not. As such, Fury certainly can’t schedule a fight in late January or on February 1 without him knowing what the outcome of the BBBofC’s meeting will be.
It’s not all bad for Fury though. Even if Fury gets stripped of his Ring Magazine heavyweight title, he’ll still be the lineal champion. Fury will have to lose for him to no longer be he lineal champion.
I hate to say it, but it’s looking like the Joshua vs. Parker fight will be for the vacant Ring heavyweight title. Fury is about to be stripped of his Ring strap. Oh well. That’s how it goes. It’s not as if Fury has been actively defending the Ring title. Fury has been inactive for the last 2 years of his career. It looks funny the Ring heavyweight title no longer being defended. For the Ring heavyweight title to have any real meaning, it needs to be defended on a regular basis, I think.
Here’s what Fury said on his Twitter about his status of being a Ring heavyweight champion:
“When your the lineal champion in your division your number1 even without alphabet titles, The truth. So whatever people want to say it will be AJ challenging me for my status!!! THE LINEAL HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION. & RING MAGAZINE HOLDER.”
It sounds like Fury realizes he’s about to be stripped of his Ring strap. Oh well.
If Fury isn’t able to actively defend his Ring title, for whatever reason, he needs to be stripped. If I was one of the Ring committee members, I would have replaced Fury ages ago with a heavyweight that is active and winning against the best. I’m just saying. I don’t think I would have Joshua at the top though. His win over Wladimir Klitschko wasn’t a big enough one for me to place him at the top spot in the Ring heavyweight rankings. You have to remember that the 41-year-old Wladimir was coming off of a 2-year layoff at the time he fought Joshua. The fight wasn’t in neutral territory either. It was in Joshua’s backyard in London, England. I’m not saying that Wilder deserves the Ring title either. If he beats Luis Ortiz, then he deserves the Ring heavyweight title in my view.