By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury did a bit of trolling on Thursday, making a big deal about him being rated as the subjective Ring Magazine heavyweight champion above #1 Anthony Joshua and #2 Deontay Wilder.
Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) posted on Twitter earlier today a picture of himself with the caption, “I’m the boss.” At this point, we’re just hoping Fury doesn’t bail out of his July fight with Joshua, using the excuse that the venue options weren’t given to him by the April 10th deadline.
The ticking, clocking Tweet that Fury posted on Wednesday suggests that he’s thinking of walking away from the Joshua fight despite all the money and acclaim he’ll get by taking it.
Unfortunately, Fury hasn’t proven that he’s the boss of the heavyweight division, and there’s a lot of doubt whether he’ll be able to make it out of his two fights with Joshua with his hide intact.
There’s a genuine possibility that Fury’s career could be in the dumpster after his two fights with Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs) in 2021, particularly if he gets knocked out in both of them.
You can argue that Fury’s career might be as bad off as Alexander Povetkin’s is right now after his loss to Dillian Whyte. Even though it was only one loss, some feel that Povetkin should retire.
If Fury gets knocked out twice by Joshua, it’s fair to say that the fans will be saying that he’s “done” and he should retire posthaste.
I’m the boss. pic.twitter.com/d6iD5lqO0y
— TYSON FURY (@Tyson_Fury) April 7, 2021
If you want to be technical about it, Fury doesn’t rate being the Ring Magazine Championship status for these four reasons:
- Weak resume: Fury has only fought two quality opponents during his 13-year pro career with his fights with Wladimir Klitschko and Deontay Wilder. As most boxing fans know, Wladimir was an older fighter at the end of his career when he fought Fury, and he still would have likely beaten him if he had his late trainer Emanuel Steward still in his corner.
- Glove controversy: The flopping gloves from Fury’s fight against Wilder had some boxing fans believing that there was something sinister going on. To this day, many fans believe that Fury gamed the system with his gloves or the Wilder fight.
- Rabbit punching: Fury’s victory over Deontay Wilder in 2020 saw him land many punches to the back of his head without being penalized for disqualified for it. Some fans believe that Fury wouldn’t have won if he didn’t hit Wilder in the back of the head so many times during the course of the bout. It’s unclear why the referee didn’t step in and warn Fury for the rabbit shots.
- Controversy over knockdown: The 12th round knockdown that Fury suffered in his first fight with Wilder in 2018 still has many fans believing that the referee gave him a long count. The fans believe that the referee took his time starting the count. Also, they wonder why there was a count given in the first place because Fury looked to be unconscious. It seemed VERY strange that the referee was giving a count to a seemingly knocked out Fury. When do you see that same thing nowadays in boxing? You can argue that’s it’s rare for a referee to give a count to a fighter that was in the same condition that Fury was in after he was dropped by Wilder in the 12th round in their first fight in 2018. The question is, should Wilder have been credit for a knockout win? If Wilder was given a knockout win, his record against Fury would be 1-1 after two fights instead of 0-1-1. Equally important, would the referee have given Wilder a count if he was in the same state that Fury was? Some people think the referee would have stopped the fight straightaway if Wilder were the one knocked out in the 12th round.
