By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury’s father John is growing impatient at the glacial pace of Matchroom Boxing boss Eddie Hearn looking for a site location for his fight with Anthony Joshua, and he says they’ll need a tune-up if they don’t get the deal done soon.
John doesn’t want his son, WBC heavyweight champion Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs), dealing with inactivity when he eventually faces IBF/WBA/WBO champion Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs).
Fury hasn’t fought since February of 2020 against Deontay Wilder, but that’s obviously his own fault.
The Gypsy King created his own problems
If Fury had gone along with Wilder’s contractual rematch, he could have already fought him by now in 2021, and there wouldn’t be a ring-rust issue that John is bellyaching about.
With Fury shooting himself in the foot by circumventing his rematch with the KO artists Wilder in order to get a massive payday against Joshua in their mega-clash, he’s unwittingly put himself at a disadvantage. When you’re in a rush to get a payday, as Fury is, you’re going to have to deal with being ill-prepared for a fight with Joshua.
“If this goes on any longer, he will need tune-up fights,” John Fury said to Sky Sports on the Joshua vs. Fury negotiations. “Inactivity plays a big part in boxing.
“You’ve got to have activity under those lights. They have been in a rush with it. When you rush a cake, it doesn’t taste right. We will fight anyway, with or without AJ.
“I hope [Hearn] can make it. This fight could be made a lot easier, a lot simpler, in the coming months when people get back to easier ways, to normality,” said John.
Again, there wouldn’t be any problems for Fury if he’d done the right thing by sticking it out with the rematch with Wilder instead of dashing off in a carefree way.
It looks the way Fury chose not to give Wilder their rematch, especially when you factor in that Deontay threw a bone to the overweight Gypsy King in 2018 when he was making his comeback after years of inactivity.
Wilder didn’t have to give Fury the fight in 2018, but he did. Wilder didn’t need to give Fury a rematch in 2019 after the two fought to a 12 round draw in their first fight, but he did.
The Bronze Bomber gave Fury a rematch
Deontay showed his class and what kind of person he is by giving Fury a rematch. So what happened when the shoe was on the other foot? When Wilder needed a rematch, Fury forgot about him, said he wouldn’t fight him, and went full steam ahead for the first of two fights against Joshua.
Now, we’re hearing John Fury harp about Tyson dealing with inactivity, which he brought about himself by not choosing to fight Deontay again. Who’s to blame here?
“At this moment in time, nothing has changed. There are rumors, lots of rumors, but nothing set in stone as of 9 p.m,” said John Fury. “The clock ran out last Saturday. We will give it every opportunity to put this fight on in June or July.”
Well, if John is going to work himself up to a lather about Fury’s inactivity, he can always take the fight with Wilder and then revisit the Joshua fight negotiations for November or December if he’s still in one piece.
I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for Fury to do that because he knows it’s too risky for him to fight Wilder ever again.
Fury was lucky he wasn’t given a knockout defeat in his first fight with Deontay when he was knocked cold in the 12th round.
To this day, many boxing fans believe that Fury should have been stopped in that fight, but for some reason, the referee gave a count to him while he was out cold.