By Scott Gilfoid: Former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (24-0, 18 KOs) says he’s close to making an announcement for his comeback fight in 2018. Fury, 29, says he’ll have a date and a venue for his comeback fight.
Fury has been talking about his comeback for such a long time that it’s not interesting news. Fury’s comeback fight is expected to take place in June.
Fury hasn’t fought since his win over Wladimir Klitschko in 2015. He’s been fat, inactive and suspended. Fury recently got his boxing license back, but he’s been slow in lining up a date for his comeback fight.
The boxing public wants to hear Fury give out the details when the time comes, but not the constant announcements he keeps making. Fury has become like the boy cried wolf. Initially the fans were excited when Fury would say he plans on fighting soon, but now it’s become something of a joke. He’s just talking and not fighting.
These constant comeback fight announcements by Fury might help increase interest in Anthony Joshua’s March 31st unification fight against WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker. The fans want to see Fury and Joshua face each other this year. If Fury continues to name drop Joshua’s name, he can help bring him in a lot of PPV buys for the Parker fight on Sky Box Office. Fury would be helping Joshua. Fury can also hurt the Joshua-Parker fight by making these constant announcements. Boxing fans are focusing on Fury instead of the Joshua-Parker fight.
Fury said this on his social media site on Tuesday:
”Guys I’m so excited about this announcement, the announcement for my fight date. You’re going to have the date and you’re going to have the name. It’s going off.”
As popular as Fury is, he can and probably will have his comeback fight televised on pay-per-view in the UK. It doesn’t matter if Fury fights a well-known fighter or not. There are a lot of boxing fans that will pay to see Fury fight. He can make good money fighting journeyman level opposition at this point. It would obviously help Fury if he picked out a credible opponent that the British boxing fans can recognize like David Allen, Tony Bellew or Dereck Chisora, but he’s not likely to face anyone that good for his first fight back.
Fury isn’t saying the name of the promoter for his comeback fight. Many boxing fans expect it to be Frank Warren. It’ll be interesting to see Fury fighting on BT Sports.
The speculation is high about who Fury’s next opponent will be. Some boxing fans believe it’ll be 47-year-old former WBO heavyweight champion Shannon ‘The Cannon’ Briggs. That’s unlikely though. Even though it’s been a couple of years since Briggs last fought, he can still punch to the body, and he could take out Fury if he’s weak, fat and ring rusty in his comeback fight.