By Charles Brun: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum confirmed on Thursday that Tyson Fury has indeed retired from the sport, but he will “unretire” as soon as offered a big fight.
In other words, Fury (32-0-1, 22 KOs) isn’t retired and will be in a holding pattern until after the smoke clears from the Oleksandr Usyk vs. Anthony Joshua rematch this summer.
We don’t need Arum to tell us that Fury will be back soon because he’d have vacated his WBC heavyweight strap if he was really retired. He’s chosen not to vacate, which means all this blather about retiring is just lip service.
Another reason why Fury hasn’t vacated his WBC title is his popularity will remain high as long as he’s still holding a strap. So if Fury is going to fight UFC heavyweight Francisco Ngannou in an exhibition match, it helps for him to be a world title holder.
Fury can use the WBC belt as a prop to help sell his exhibition match against Ngannou. Yeah, it would be pathetic for Fury to use the WBC belt as a tool to make more money, but oh well.
More fans will be willing to purchase an exhibition match between Fury and Nganno if Tyson still holds the WBC belt, even if he has no serious intentions of defending it against a contender.
“Tyson Fury is retired and he will be retired until we come to him with the next big event and then he will unretire,” said Bob Arum to Fightnews about whether Fury is retired or not from boxing.
There is a chance the 33-year-old Fury may choose not to return to the ring if the unified heavyweight champion Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) defeats Joshua. It’s pretty clear that Fury wants no part of fighting Usyk, and you can understand why.
The quick feet, excellent cardio, and the supreme boxing skills that Usyk possess makes him a terrible choice for Fury, who has slowed down after bulking up to the 270s.
Joshua is the guy Fury wants because it’s an easy win for him, and the British fans will gladly purchase the fight on PPV in the UK. It would be the equivalent of Fury robbing the bank to fight the badly flawed past his best Joshua, and that’s what he’s waiting around for before “unretiring.”
As long as the WBC doesn’t try and push Fury into fighting Usyk, he’ll unretire and fight again. AJ is food for Fury and many other fighters in the division.
In Fury’s last fight, he stopped Dillian Whyte in the sixth round on April 23rd at Wembley Stadium in London, England.
Fury-Whyte was a colossal disappointment for many paying boxing fans, as it lacked action until the very end when Fury landed a big uppercut that knocked Whyte on his backside in the sixth round.
In that fight, Fury looked sluggish, spending a lot of time holding & leaning on Whyte.
