Frank Smith has given his two cents on Tyson Fury’s explosive interview with YouTuber True Geordie that went viral this week, saying Fury’s explicit comments could have been motivated by a desire to sell tickets for his fight with Dereck Chisora on December 3rd.
The Matchroom CEO admitted to SecondsOut that he hadn’t watched the interview in its entirety, however did state that it seemed to him that it was an attempt by Fury to maintain relevance.
“I haven’t actually listened to the podcast or what he [Fury] said – I saw about 15 seconds of it. I think just maybe he’s trying to stay relevant because he needs to sell some tickets.”
The interview resulted in large swathes of criticism being directed Fury’s way, after he reacted angrily to questions regarding whether or not Chisora – with 3 losses in his last 4 fights – was worthy of a shot at the heavyweight world championship.
The consensus online is that the questioning of Chisora as an opponent for Fury at this stage in their respective careers was legitimate and that Fury’s reaction was not a great look. Smith, however, did defend ‘Del Boy‘ getting another shot at becoming heavyweight champion.
“I don’t think Chisora’s not credible at all. You just have to look back at what he’s done over the years, he fought Usyk not too long ago, fought Joesph Parker twice and he just beat Pulev.
There is not a huge range of heavyweights out there. At the same time would a fight against Joe Joyce or Daniel Dubois have been more interesting, who are both under the same stable, probably.”
The hope amongst the boxing public is that the unlikely trilogy bout with Chisora will merely serve as a tune up for Fury before an undisputed clash with Oleksandr Usyk in the new year.