By William Lloyd: Boxing great Mike Tyson is urging WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury not to retire from the sport amid rumors that the 33-year-old could call it a day following his tenth-round knockout win over Deontay Wilder on October 9th.
The 55-year-old former IBF, WBA & WBC heavyweight champion ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson wants Fury to stay around the sport and continue to make money before retiring.
Fury is on the verge of potentially getting a $100 million payday against the Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk rematch winner in 2022. For Fury to retire now without fighting the winner would be disappointing to the fans.
They want to see Fury fight the winner of that fight to cement himself as the #1 heavyweight in the division.
One annoying problem that has come about for Fury is the World Boxing Council ruling that he must defend his WBC title against their interim champion Dillian Whyte next.
It’s going to be hard for Fury to get motivated for a fight with Whyte when he’s got a much bigger one just over the horizon against the Joshua-Usyk 2 winner.
Historically, we’ve seen what happens to fighters when they look over their shoulder towards bigger paydays.
It might not be worth it for Fury to put himself in the position of fighting Whyte if he’s not entirely motivated for the match because he could lose, and that would destroy his chances to fight the Joshua vs. Usyk II winner next year.
“Keep on winning, brother, keep on winning,” Mike Tyson said to Reuters about Fury. “He’s the lineal champion. He’s the man who beat the man. He is heavyweight boxing, period. He is, nobody else.
“Ask anybody except for Usyk, who is the heavyweight champion? And Usyk might even say it’s Fury,” Tyson said.
Its likely Fury will stay around long enough to fight the winner of Joshua’s rematch with Usyk, but he’s got to decide what to do with his mandatory Whyte.
Both Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) and his pushy promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing are banging the drum for a fight with Fury, and they’re talking about it almost daily in the media.
They’re putting pressure on Fury by getting the media and the fans aware of Whyte being mandatory.
They want to put Fury in a position where he has no choice but to fight with Whyte due to the pressure and expectations from the fans.
If Fury is going to vacate his WBC title and go the Franchise route, now would be the time to do so before Hearn and Whyte rachet up the pressure on him to force the fight.
If Fury vacates the WBC belt, Whyte would be elevated to the full WBC champion, and he would be someone that would potentially be there as an option after the smoke clears from the enormous fights in 2022.
“Keep fighting, make money, stack your money up, and call it a day,” said Tyson of Fury.
The big fights for Fury before retiring after these excellent match-ups:
- Joshua vs. Usyk winner
- Dillian Whyte
- Deontay Wilder trilogy
- Joe Joyce
- Andy Ruiz Jr
- Daniel Dubois