By Barry Holbrook: Carl Froch says he expects Tyson Fury to be “lured back” out of retirement if Anthony Joshua does the business against unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk in July in their rematch.
If that’s the case, Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs) hasn’t already vacated his WBC title because that would rob him & the boxing world of the opportunity to see him battle for the undisputed championship against the Joshua vs. Usyk 2 winner.
Fury told fans last Saturday night that he’s “ONLY” going to be doing “exhibition” matches against fighters like Francis Ngannou following his farewell sixth-round knockout win over Dillian Whyte (28-3, 19 KOs) at Wembley Stadium in London, England.
If Fury, 33, needs a good excuse to delay his retirement, he can always tell the boxing public that he needs to do a farewell fight for the U.S fans, as he didn’t get a chance to give them a last chance to see him.
Froch believes that Fury will choose to fight Joshua if he beats IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion, but he admits that he’s really up against it in the rematch.
Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) is so talented and hard to hit, it probably won’t matter if Joshua tries to impose his size on him.
“I thought he was going to warm up and go into the second half of the fight, but he didn’t get there,” said Carl Froch to iFL TV about Dillian Whyte failing to get the win over Tyson Fury.
“Unfortunately for Dillian Whyte. He’s such a nice bloke. He really tries hard and works hard. He just got caught with a good uppercut on the chin.
“Time after time, Dillian Whyte has been hit with uppercuts,” said Froch perhaps alluding to Dillian’s two previous knockout losses to Anthony Joshua and Alexander Povetkin, fights in which he was stopped by uppercuts.
“Potentially, yes,” said Froch when asked if he thinks Fury will retire. “He said he will. There’s plenty of money still out there for him, money that he doesn’t need, and some big fights. You can’t blame him if he does retire,” Froch said.
Froch isn’t the one to talk about Fury sticking around to fight a big fight, because when he retired in 2014, he walked away from a huge money fight against Gennadiy Golovkin.
Obviously, Froch had his reasons for not wanting to stay around long enough to fight Golovkin, but he would have made a lot of money and it would have been a far better fight worldwide than George Groves.
“Do I think he will? I think he’ll be lured back out for one more,” said Froch about Fury. “After six months back home with the kids, he’ll think, ‘You know what? I fancy another fight.’
“Tyson Fury WON’T retire, let’s be honest. If AJ does the business against Usyk, that fights going to happen. I’ll be knocking on his [Fury] door, saying, ‘Come out of retirement. We need to see this fight.’ So, hopefully, AJ does the business [against Oleksandr Usyk],” said Froch.
