Tyson Fury says Joshua fight scheduled for 2018

By Boxing News - 05/09/2017 - Comments

Image: Tyson Fury says Joshua fight scheduled for 2018

By Scott Gilfoid: Tyson Fury is saying that IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has already set aside April 2018 for a fight between the two giant heavyweights next year. The only things that needs to happen before that fight can materialize is for Fury to get his boxing license boxing with the BBBofC and he needs to be cleared with the UK Anti-Doping people.

Fury had a meeting with UKAD on Monday to see if he can get clearance to fight. He’s still waiting for the results of that hearing. UKAD will likely make an announcement soon. It would be bad news for Fury’s career if they rule against him.

“Eddie Hearn has already booked Wembley Stadium for next April,” Fury said to the Daily Telegraph. “There isn’t another stadium where it should take place. I would fight Joshua in October but I believe Klitschko will take the rematch.”

Without Fury taking some tune-ups and losing all the weight that he’s put, I think it would be a face if he and Joshua were to fight each other in October this year. If Hearn let the Joshua-Fury take place this year, he would be criticized like mad if a badly overweight Fury waddled into the ring to face Joshua. The outcome would be utterly predictable. Fury was said to be well over 300 pounds before he started to train lightly in Spain. And while he says he’s lost close to 20 pounds, he still has a lot of weight to lose before he can be taken seriously as an opponent for Joshua or any top fighter for that matter.

It would not be fair to Fury, the boxing fans or to Joshua if he doesn’t seriously lose the weight and take some tune-up fights. Fury-Joshua can tremendous fight next year if Fury shows the boxing world that it’s going to be a legitimate fight, and not just a ‘business fight’ for money only. The fans want to see the best facing the best. I don’t think you can say that a 300 pound out of shape Fury would be anywhere close to being the best if he returns to the ring to face Joshua without losing the weight and taking at least 2 tune-ups against opposition.

Fury, 28, hasn’t fought since November of 2015 in beating Wladimir Klitschko by a 12 round unanimous decision. It was definitely a close fight, and the only reason Fury won was because Wladimir didn’t throw punches. He looked confused. However, the Wladimir that fought Joshua would have been a REAL problem for Fury. I don’t think Fury beats Wladimir at this point, even if he was his 2015 form and not carrying around a bunch of excess weight. That’s why I think it’s stupid beyond belief for Fury to keep blabbering to the boxing public about his previous win over Wladimir.

Fury is living off of yesterday’s accomplishment in beating Wladimir instead of moving on mentally and putting the victory behind him. When you do stuff in the past, you’re supposed to keep moving forward instead of dwelling on it, and getting lost in the reverie. Fury needs to see his win over Wladimir as being about as important as defeating someone at a game of checkers in 2015. Why is Fury is still yapping about something that is done and over with? The guy needs to take that blubber off and think about the future. I don’t think anyone cares about Fury’s win over Wladimir now, because its old news and a lot of boxing fans think that Fury would lose to a motivated Wladimir.

“Deep down, I don’t think they want to fight me yet. Joshua struggled with Klitschko,” said Fury about Joshua and Hearn. ”And I took Klitschko to school, toyed with him, put my hands behind my back, literally, while he was letting his cannons go, slipping out of the way of them. They are not ready for that.”

I think it’s obvious that Hearn sees the Fury fight as one that needs to be built up before he can make it as big as the Joshua-Klitschko fight was. It’s not good for Hearn to put together the Joshua-Fury fight with Fury coming off of a long 2-year layoff and with his drug and mental problems that he dealt with in the not so distant past. Fury needs to show that he’s still a credible talent in boxing by taking off the weight that he’s put on, and then beating 2 or 3 domestic level heavyweights like David Allen, Gary Cornish, Dereck Chisora and Dillian Whyte. Fury can probably get at least 2 of those guys to agree to fight him.

I doubt that Chisora or Whyte will face him, because they seem to be trying to get world title fights. I can’t see either of them taking a risky fight against Fury. I don’t think it matters that Fury would be coming off a long layoff and would still likely be fat. I don’t think Chisora and Whyte would fight him right now. Getting a big money fight against Joshua is a game changer. Fighting Fury definitely is not. He doesn’t bring in the fans the way Joshua does right now.

Fury should be getting his boxing license back with the British Boxing Board of Control. It’s something that I can envision happening, but that’s not going to speed up Fury getting the Joshua fight any. I hate to say it, but Fury is still going to need to get cleared by the UKAD, and he’s STILL going to need to drop all that weight. That weight isn’t going magically disappear. Fury will need to stay away from the pies, cakes and candy to start exercising hard to get all the tonnage off. WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder doesn’t believe Fury will be able to take all fat off. He thinks he’s beyond the point of no return with him having ballooned up to 300+ pounds. I totally agree with Deontay. I can’t see Fury taking all that weight. When a fighter is 40 pounds overweight, it’s possible for them to take off that kind of weight and come back to boxing. But when you’re 115 lbs. overweight like Fury had been in weighing a reported 365 lbs., I think that’s too much weight.

If Fury does get down to 250, I think he’ll be very weak and not able to fight at a high level. I’d like to see Fury prove Deontay and myself wrong, but I don’t think he will. I believe he’ll melt down to 250 and be an empty shell of his former self at that weight. My guess is the only weight that Fury can find success at when he comes back is in the 280s. He obviously won’t be the mobile fighter that he once was if he’s forced to fight at that weight, but he’ll be better than if he drains down to 250 and is too weak to fight like we saw with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. last Saturday night in his loss to Saul Canelo Alvarez.

Chavez Jr. only had to lose roughly 30 pounds, and he looked totally drained from the weight loss. He had nothing inside the ring last Saturday against Canelo. Now imagine Fury; he has to lose 115 lbs. That’s too much weight in my opinion for Fury to be able to come back and fight at a world class level. It’s good for Fury’s health sake to take the weight off if he does it in a smart way by not starving himself and going on a drastic calorie restrictive diet, but I don’t think it’s possible for an athlete to lose 115 pounds and come back to fight at a world class level. That’s one reason you never want to let yourself go to that extent, because it’s just too hard to take all the weight off to become back and compete against top level fighters that have kept themselves in shape year round with exercise and a sound diet.