By Jake Tiernan: Tyson Fury is in a tough spot, needing to get a tune-up level fight in September to get him ready for a tough contest against Oleksandr Usyk in December.
According to Eddie Hearn, Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) wants too much money for him to fight in September against anyone other than Anthony Joshua, and he’s not going to going to indulge him because he has a two-fight plan for August & December.
It’s essential for Fury not to let his love for money get in the way of returning to the ring. With a net worth estimated at $65 million, that’s more than enough money to last Fury for the rest of his life unless his dreams are to purchase the late billionaire J. Paul Getty’s mansion, Sutton Place in Surrey. Greed is counter-productive for boxers.
Unless WBC heavyweight champion Fury is willing to fight for less than colossal money to get the ring rust out to prepare for Usyk, he’ll be out of action until December.
Tune-up options
Agit Kabayel
Frank Sanchez
Andy Ruiz
Jared Anderson
Martin Bakole
Lenier Pero
Arslanbek Makhmudov
Otto Wallin
Fury would be coming off a year layoff by the time he faces IBF, WBA & WBO champion Usyk in Saudi Arabia in December. That’s not ideal to be fighting a mobile sharpshooter like Usyk, who will take advantage of Fury’s ring rust to pick him apart.
Fury’s credibility in bad place
“The December fight is a huge fight. It’s incredibly lucrative for AJ. It’s one of the hugest fights in boxing,” said Eddie Hearn to Boxing Social. “We don’t feel comfortable; Anthony doesn’t feel comfortable. in changing those two-fight plans, scrapping them in the hope of making a Tyson Fury fight.
“The thing with Tyson Fury, he’s never going to take any advice, is he? So someone from the marketing team or PR team is never going to go, ‘You’re credibility is not in a good place. Read the comments on your posts,’ because that’s generally how you get the gist of how people are feeling.
“I don’t know how this is going to play out, but people like AJ and like Usyk are probably looking at Tyson Fury and thinking, ‘I’m not actually sure where you go from here?’ You p***sd off Oleksandr to the point where he thinks you’re a time-waster. So he’s going to crack on and fight Dubois.
“AJ doesn’t really believe a word you’re saying. He’s got two fights that he thinks are cemented and locked, which he’s training for in Dallas. Why do I want to let this geezer, who is just a messer ruin my plans? So what is Tyson Fury going to do? What are his options?
“He wants to fight in September. Who can you fight in September that will pay you the money that you will only step in the ring for? The answer is, I don’t know, and I’m not sure what’s going to happen.
“So maybe he goes back to Saudi and says, ‘Actually, that December fight. I’ll take it,’ but he’ll have to have a year out before fighting Oleksandr Usyk. He’s not confident about fighting Oleksandr Usyk.
“I don’t care what you say. He thinks he wins, I’m sure he knows how good Oleksandr Usyk is, and he will fight for the right money. But will he go into that fight having a year out? I’m not so sure,” said Hearn.
Joshua won’t fight Fury in September
“If those plans don’t materialize, we have absolutely no problems going into a Tyson Fury fight in September,” said Hearn about Anthony Joshua using Fury as last resort.
“Frank Warren says, ‘Why don’t you fight Tyson Fury in September and then Deontay Wilder in December.’ Come on, let’s be honest. When have you ever turned around a fight like that in three months where you’re an underdog in one fight and a betting underdog in another fight? It’s ridiculous.
“I don’t know if it’s a PR from Queensberry or whatever it is, but nothing has changed. They come out with, ‘Oh, AJ has turned down the fight from Tyson Fury.’ Come on; everyone is wise to that now.
“You only got to look at the comments on social media. Last week, he [Fury] was fighting four different people. Tyson Fury is in no man’s land, and the reason he’s in no man’s land is because he wants massive money for a big fight.
“If he’s not fighting AJ and if he’s not fighting Usyk, which he’s not at the moment, who is he going to fight? This is the problem with Andy Ruiz, and all these guys want a lot of money. Queensberry and everyone are under a lot of pressure right now because Tyson Fury hasn’t fought since December, and that was Derek Chisora. We’re now in June.
“So he ain’t going to fight in July; he ain’t going to fight in August. So he’s going to fight in September, and now if he’s going to fight in September, if he’s in any kind of fights, he ain’t going to fight Oleksandr Usyk, which is the Saudi’s plans.
“So we’re going to move forward on the basis of even if Tyson Fury doesn’t want to fight Oleksandr Usyk, AJ still fights Deontay Wilder. So from our point of view, I wouldn’t listen too much from the PR angle. Nothing has changed from our interviews last week.
“We have a plan, which we’ve had for some time now, to fight August the 12th and December. That’s it, that’s what we’re doing, and until that changes or until we’re told that can’t happen, and then if we do, we’ll definitely consider a Tyson Fury fight.
“We’re not going to toss down our plans after this guy [Fury] all of a sudden mentions AJ’s name last week for the first time in ages, said, ‘Come on, make that fight.’ We’re like, ‘Okay, fair enough.’
“I don’t want to say to people, ‘He’s a joke. We don’t believe a word he says,’ because we have to look at those fights, but we have a plan, and that plan remains the same,” Hearn said.
Tyson wanted too much money
“They [Team Fury] want it to happen in the UK because you can’t do a fight in the Middle East in September. I think people have got to be a little more honest,” said Hearn.
“This whole thing about, ‘We are doing this because we want to make it happen in the UK.’ No, you asked for 120 million or whatever it was from the Saudis, and they said, ‘No,’ and then you went back and said, ‘Oh, actually, we’ll take whatever it was.’ This isn’t Frank, by the way. This is Tyson. Now you’re left with holding your [frontside] that.
“The other saying, ‘P***ing in the wind.’ You got no choice but to go in the UK in September. Do you honestly think that if there was three times the money to do this fight in the Middle East, there wouldn’t be a conversation? I’m just keeping it real.
“The reality is when he says, ‘The money’s there,’ it’s not. It’s a split of revenue. At the moment, I’ll give you an example. AJ would probably make half of the money to make the Tyson Fury fight over the Deontay Wilder,” said Hearn.
