By Charles Brun: John Fury dismissed the call out by Zhilei Zhang of Tyson Fury, saying that his feet are too slow and would get knocked out by the ‘Gypsy King’ within seven rounds.
Not surprisingly, John didn’t sound enthusiastic about Zhang (26-1-1, 21 KOs) getting the opportunity to challenge Fury for his WBC heavyweight title, or any fighter in the division for that matter.
Tyson won’t fight Zhang or Oleksandr Usyk and has shown no motivation to take on quality opposition since his win over Deontay Wilder in their trilogy fight two years ago in 2021.
Fury has become one of the many belt-holders that have become inactive, sitting on his title and killing the sport. He seems more interested in making easy money with his crossover fights.
The sanctioning bodies need to be stripping the champions who don’t defend their titles against their mandatory challengers on an annual basis, as that’s not a good thing for boxing to have a belt-holder go more than twelve months between defenses.
“Zhang’s a big southpaw; he’s got quick hands, but he’s got the slowest feet I’ve ever seen. He’d get his head boxed off and stopped in about seven rounds [by Tyson Fury]. Zhang knocks Usyk out; he’s too small. The minute Zhang connects on Usyk, he would knock him out,” said John Fury on Secondsout’s Youtube site.
“Along with the rest of them,” said John when told that Zhang called out Fury after his knockout win over Joe Joyce. “With feet like that and speed like that, forget about messing with GK [Gyspy King].
“Tyson is a 20-stone united, he’s 6’9”, and he can box like a middleweight. Zhilei Zhang, or whatever they call him, his face would be a mess after four rounds. It would be a total mess. He wouldn’t be able to see out of his face.
“Even if he didn’t go down, he wouldn’t be able to see, and the referee would have to stop it just like they stopped Joe Joyce the first time.
“No, he doesn’t have the ability of the class to mess with GK. The only thing he’s is southpaw, quickish hands if you let him get in range. But if you’re stupid enough to let him get in range and fire them bombs, well, you can expect that.
“Any man 20 stone can hurt you if he connects, but will he connect with the big GK [Gypsy King]? Absolutely not, and the big GK is as strong as him, five years younger, and on another planet with ability. There are levels to this game, and Tyson is ten levels above those.
“On his night, Zhang will give every other person in the heavyweight division apart from Tyson because he’s in a different league, problems,” said John Fury.
