Heavyweight champions Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder are the targets Tyson Fury needs to get him back in the ring, according to a member of Fury’s team.
One of the stories of the week was that Fury was in the gym and talking about fighting again next April.
He turned up at Ricky Hatton’s gym in Hyde, Greater Manchester, saying he has lost 2 ½ stones in the last two weeks and that this time his “head is on it.”
But that was this week – and who knows what the story will be next week ? Even his wife, Paris, admits Fury’s moods change from one day to the next and any boxing fans who have followed Tyson on social media will know how she feels.
There have been so many declarations and u turns since we last saw him fight. On November 28, it will be two years since Fury bamboozled Wladimir Klitschko out of his heavyweight belts, but according to Clifton Mitchell, this time Fury is serious about coming back.
Mitchell has been Fury’s cuts man ever since he teamed up with uncle Peter Fury and he said: “His weight is coming off quick – and Tyson has a target again now. For years the target was the Klitschkos and now he has Wilder and Joshua to motivate him.
“Tyson has been written off and he likes being the underdog. For me, Tyson against Joshua is the biggest fight out there – and Tyson wins.”
Paul Butlin thinks otherwise.
The retired ex-Midlands Area heavyweight champion has sparred many rounds with Fury – he was loudly thanked after the John McDermott rematch – and was blasted out by Joshua inside a couple of rounds early in his career.
He sees a Joshua-Fury fight going much the same way as Joshua-Klitschko, explaining: “Joshua would probably have a few tough spells, but he has so much power, he would come through in the end.
“Fury put it on me and tried to hurt me, but he couldn’t – and Joshua knocked me off my feet. That’s the difference between them.”
One of the other differences between Joshua and Fury is that Joshua has won the world title and stayed motivated, while Fury obviously hasn’t.
Perhaps that’s unsurprising, given what Fury said weeks after beating Klitschko on one of the great nights in British boxing history.
Fury was interviewed by Gary Lineker at the Sports Personality of the Year awards and said: “If I win another 2,000 fights, nothing will ever top that fight. That was the be all and end all of everything. Take every other boxing match I have ever done and it won’t be half of what I done then.”
The question is whether, having achieved everything he set out to achieve, can Fury motivate himself to fight again, providing he clears up his issues with the UKAD and the British Boxing Board of Control?
There are huge fights out there for him, but the 29 year old doesn’t appear to need boxing. The Furys, Tyson, Paris and their children Venezuela and Prince, live modestly, the tabloid press photographed Tyson shopping in discount store B & M days after toppling Klitschko, and his childlike need for attention is satisfied by his posts on social media.
His late uncle, and trainer, Hughie told me once: “If nobody wrote or talked about boxing, Tyson would find something else to do” and his every post these days is headline news in the tabloid press and on the internet.
He has retired and unretired numerous times since the Klitschko rematch collapsed for a second time last year and the news he hit the pads with Ben Davison in Greater Manchester this week caused a social media frenzy – and prompted this article !
Perhaps he just wanted a bit of attention that day.
But whether he fights again or not, Fury does need to lose weight.
He was described as “a heart attack waiting to happen” by one insider this week. He currently weighs around 25 stones – and that’s an unhealthy weight.
He was 17st 9lbs for the Klitschko fight.
Fury was fit that night – and had to be to box on the balls of his feet for virtually the whole 12 rounds. The Fury that beat Klitschko surely gives Joshua and Wilder problems.
At the very least.
“Tyson likes being the underdog,” said Mitchell, “he likes being written off and I think he wants to prove he is head and shoulders above the rest of the heavyweights out there.”
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