By Charles Brun: Michael Hunter feels that it’s terrible for the sport to have Tyson Fury holding the WBC heavyweight title, fighting non-boxers like Francis Ngannou, and not facing Oleksandr Usyk, the guy fans want to see him fight.
Hunter sees Fury as being “selfish” and labels him as a “clown.” It seems pretty obvious that Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) is winding down his career and feathering his nest for his retirement years with the easy opposition before checking out against IBF, WBA & WBO champion Usyk & possibly Anthony Joshua, depending on the outcome of his fight with Oleksandr.
Fury’s ambition has left him entirely since his grueling third fight with Deontay Wilder in 2021.
Did Deontay Wilder ruin Tyon Fury?
Whether it was the mountain of money that the 6’9″ Gypsy King Fury made in the trilogy bout with Deontay or the punishing headshots he took that caused him to lose his motivation to fight the best is unknown.
It could be a combination of both. Fury has seemed like another person since that third fight with Wilder.
When you put two and two together, you got to suspect that Deontay knocked the courage out of Fury with those right hands that he bounced off his head in their trilogy match. If you remember that fight, Fury was down for the nine count, even with the referee counting VERY slowly, ‘One-ah, two-ah, three-ah.’
In their first fight, Wilder literally knocked Fury out clinically, but in a laughable scene, the referee bent over and gave a count while Tyson was looking like needed a medical team to stretcher him out of the ring. That knockout may have done something to Fury as well.
What we do know is that Fury has seemingly changed since that third fight with Wilder, and it makes you wonder if those devasting right-hand bombs that he took in that fight might have changed him, turning him into a difficult, intractable, risk-averse fighter who is only interested in playing it safe against novice fighters like Ngannou and British journeymen fighters, Dereck Chisora & Dillian Whyte.
“We basically got a clown holding the belts, and it’s a bad situation,” said Michael Hunter to Secondsout about Tyson Fury holding the WBC belt, fighting Francis Ngannou next instead of a heavyweight contender.
“He wants all the belts, and that’s how it should be. I feel he would fight an even faster pace if it were allowed,” said Hunter bout Oleksandr Usyk, the IBF, WBA & WBO heavyweight champion.
“Tyson Fury dodged a bullet on Usyk. He would give Tyson Fury a problem; that’s not a secret; there’s no way he should not be fighting [him].
“It’s not good for the whole situation. I feel like it’s a selfish move on Fury’s behalf,” said Hunter about Fury fighting Ngannou.
