Is Tyson Fury retiring to avoid fighting Oleksandr Usyk or Anthony Joshua?

By Boxing News - 04/22/2022 - Comments

By Scott Gilfoid: Tyson Fury’s decision to hang up his gloves after his fight this Saturday night against Dillian Whyte has many fans on social media believing that ‘The Gypsy King’ has chosen this moment so that he can duck the Oleksander Usyk vs. Anthony Joshua winner.

Why would Fury choose to hang up his gloves without staying on a little longer to fight Usyk vs. Anthony Joshua II winner? Is that not a duck on Fury’s part?

We still know for a 100% certainty Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) will win his rematch with Joshua in July, but it doesn’t matter. Fury says he’s not interested in staying around to fight either of those two talents, and you got to wonder why. Has Fury lost his nerve? Did Deontay Wilder knock the courage out of Fury from their last fight?

“After this fight, I’m walking away,” said Fury to ESPN. “When I walk away, I will NEVER come back, never.

There are no words.

With Fury choosing to retire after his fight with Whyte, boxing fans will talk, and they’re going to reach their conclusions about why Tyson is hanging up his gloves without fighting Usyk or AJ.

As long as Fury’s okay with fans seeing him as a ducker, he can ride off into the sunset after Saturday night at peace with his retirement decision. But I hate to say it, though, Fury will look like he’s royally ducking the Joshua-Usyk 2 winner, and it’s going to look bad for his legacy.

If Whyte beats the living daylights out of Fury, the question of him ducking or not ducking the Joshua vs. Usyk would be a moot point.

“I expect Tyson Fury to win by stoppage. I don’t believe this guy is on his level,” said Stephen A. Smith to ESPN in predicting a knockout win for Tyson Fury over Dillian Whyte.

“Listen, when he [Fury] beat Deontay Wilder, I think people forget that he outweighed Deontay Wilder by 38 pounds. Tyson Fury is a big, big, big dude. He’s tall, and he’s big.

“The fight that I want to see him and Anthony Joshua, that’s the fight that I want to see. I think he’d beat Anthony Joshua.

“The reason why he talks about this might be his last fight or whatever because there ain’t nobody else out there for him to beat.

“I expect him to win this fight relatively easily, and ultimately, hopefully, we’ll get an Anthony Joshua fight at Wembley Stadium, who I believe he would knockout.

“I love Tyson Fury and respect the hell out of him. The only thing that bothers me is that he significantly outweighs most of his opponents. He has all of those boxing skills.

“I wish that Deontay Wilder had let Tyson Fury beat Anthony Joshua and then took on the winner. I think it would have bought him more time to get himself ready for a Tyson Fury,” said Smith.

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