WBC heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury, has revealed the two ‘massive’ British rivalries that were never settled in the ring.
Fury has often been mentioned alongside two-time champion Anthony Joshua in recent years, however it is easy to forget just how long The Gypsy King has been amongst the top British contenders.
With a professional career spanning over fourteen years, the 34-year-old has had plenty of other domestic rivals in the sport.
In an interview with iFL TV, Fury spoke of the two rivalries that never materialised into fights.
“There has been a couple of massive rivalries, that I built up for years in this country, that didn’t happen.
[Anthony] Joshua is not my first crush. He’s not my first love. David Haye, that was built up for years, we had a massive rivalry, hated each other, and David Price.
They were the ones that got away. Price was always my first love, yeah, massive, massive rivalry, beat me as an amateur and then we had this massive rivalry all the way into the pro’s. He was British champion, I was British champion and we were going to fight each other.”
Fury was scheduled to fight David Haye on two occasions, with the Hayemaker pulling out twice due to injuries. Haye became just the second fighter to have won belts at both cruiserweight and heavyweight and was seen as the favourite ahead of his fights with the up-and-coming Fury.
Meanwhile, Fury was compared to fellow undefeated rising star David Price during the early days of his career. The hype around a Manchester-Liverpool heavyweight clash between two of the countries most exciting prospects was building momentum at the time.
Unfortunately for U.K. fans, Price suffered back-to-back defeats to Tony Thompson, followed by another loss to Christian Hammer, killing any chances of a fight against Fury.