By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury will be given more time by WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman to decide whether he really wants to retire from the sport.
Sulaiman said earlier today that he’s going to give WBC heavyweight champion Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs) more time to decide on his future despite him saying repeatedly in interviews that he’s retiring.
At what point is the World Boxing Council going to say ‘enough is enough,’ and take Fury at his word about his retirement talk?
The top heavyweight contenders are waiting for their opportunity to fight for the WBC belt, and Fury has already made it clear countless times that he doesn’t want it any longer.
WBC top five:
1. Deontay Wilder
2. Joe Joyce
3. Joseph Parker
4. Frank Sanchez
5. Andy Ruiz
“We will give him the time he needs. I do not like to speculate,” WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman said to Sky Sports about Tyson Fury. “We spoke, and we’re going to be speaking in the near future.
“I would rather wait to give him his due time for his holiday. The WBC will certainly support him, whatever he decides,” said Sulaiman about Fury.
There’s no need for Sulaiman to “speculate” about whether Fury plans on retiring because he’s already said many, many times he’s hanging up the gloves. Sulaiman needs to strip Fury of his WBC title if he’s not going to relinquish it do him being on holiday.
Some boxing fans believe Fury is going to hold onto his WBC title long enough to see what transpires in the rematch between Anthony Joshua and IBF/WBA/WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk.
In other words, if the badly flawed Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) wins, Fury will continue his career and face him for the undisputed championship. But if Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) comes out on top in their rematch, Fury will quickly vacate his WBC title because that would be a very, very difficult fight for him, and he wouldn’t want to end his career on a defeat.
Although Fury says he doesn’t care about money, many believe that his sole reason for wanting to fight Joshua so bad is to get a chance to grab some more loot to give him a proper golden parachute to give him a soft landing into retirement.
With the kind of green that Fury can make fighting Joshua, it would be generational cash that would keep him, as well as his children’s children, wealthy their whole lives.
“If he thinks it’s time to hang up the gloves, enjoy life and be a successful family man and have a great future, we will support him,” Sulaiman continued about Fury. “If he decides to continue fighting, we will support him.”
If Fury still hasn’t turned in his WBC title to the headquarters by this time next year, Sulaiman needs to strip him, especially once he starts with the exhibition matches against the likes of Francis Ngannou.
It would be troubling to see Fury walking into the ring with his WBC strap for his exhibition matches.
