Amir Khan reacts to Tyson Fury’s heavyweight challenge

By Boxing News - 03/02/2019 - Comments

Image: Amir Khan reacts to Tyson Fury's heavyweight challenge

By Scott Gilfoid: Amir Khan seemed surprised when asked last Friday night about his thoughts on lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury mentioning his name this week, saying that he’s interested in potentially fighting him when he returns to the ring in May or June.

Khan, 32, seemed to be unable to grasp the fact that Fury (27-0-1, 19 KOs) was just joking about wanting to fight him. Khan shockingly believed that Fury was seriously interested in fighting him, which is hard to believe that he could be so naive.

“He wants to fight Amir Khan,” Khan said to Top Rank about Fury challenging him to fight at heavyweight. “I find it quite strange, really. I don’t want to be in the ring with Tyson Fury. He’s huge compared to me. Maybe he was trying to say that I’m looking big, I’m looking strong. I don’t know why he would mention my name. Maybe he knows I got a big fight coming up, so I don’t know. I need to ask him. Maybe he’s losing another 100 [pounds]. He might want to fight me,” Khan said.

This brief interview has Gilfoid worried about Khan. Is he going to be okay when he gets inside the ring with World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford (34-0, 25 KOs) next month on April 20 on ESPN pay-per-view at the Madison Square Garden in New York. If Khan isn’t able to understand when someone like Fury is kidding with him, it makes you wonder if he’s going to be alright when he gets inside the ring with Crawford next month. Khan clearly couldn’t put 2 and 2 together in grasping that Fury was just playing around with the media by mentioning his name.

Someone needs to sit Khan down, give him a big cup of coffee, and break the news to him slowly by telling him that Fury was JUST JOKING in saying he wants to fight him. Khan not understanding that Fury was just joking is very strange. Khan needs to have his feet firmly on the ground before he takes on Crawford next month. If Khan thinks there’s a fight out there against Fury in the near future, he might not last long against Crawford. The only fight out there for Khan is Kell Brook, who patiently waiting for his cash out match. Brook spent the last year fighting weak opposition while waiting for the Khan fight. Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn wanted to match Brook against Jessie Vargas in his next fight, but Kell is rumored to have pulled out of the negotiations for some reason. Some boxing fans believe Brook didn’t want to take the risk of facing Vargas, who hasn’t won a fight in two years, and potentially mess up his stadium fight with Khan.

Here’s what Fury said recently in name dropping Khan’s name when asked by IFL who he plans on fighting next:

“I’m fighting Amir Khan. He’s moving up to heavyweight. Take your pick [of who Fury should fight next]. There’s hundreds of them, aren’t there?”

It’s painfully obvious that Fury was just pulling the interviewer’s chain by mentioning Khan’s name when asked who he plans on fighting next. Fury obviously didn’t want to mention the suspects that he’ll be fighting next, because it’s pretty that it’s going to be a soft job and not a good fighter. Fury was supposed to fight a rematch with WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder next on the 18th of May, but his promoters at Top Rank Boxing want him to take another fight to let the fight with Deontay marinate for a while. What’s interesting is Fury ruled out fighting former WBO champion Joseph Parker. With Parker not an option, Fury is likely going to be facing someone like Bryant Jennings in his next fight on ESPN. You hate to say it, but Fury’s popularity probably isn’t going to increase if he’s going to be fighting weak opponents. It’s going to going decay, at least in terms of the U.S boxing public goes, and that’s going to mortally hurt the Wilder-Fury II promotion. If Fury is just seen as a guy that fights poor opponents, when not fighting quality guys like Deontay, the U.S boxing public is going to see him as just another guy that pads his record with weak opponents. They’re not going to get excited about Fury. The only way Fury can win fans is if he takes on someone that can potentially beat him like Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz or Joe Joyce. One of those two. Fury has done sparring with Joyce recently, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he says he’s not interested in fighting him because he sees him as a friend. The excuse Fury gave for not wanting to fight Parker is he seems him as a brother.

“Me and Parker are like brothers. So do you fight your brother? No,” Fury said in ruling out a fight with Parker.

So there it is. Fury doesn’t want to fight Parker next, because he sees him as a brother. Who else does Fury not want to fight because he sees them as brothers to him?