By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury says he’s retired for now, but he won’t vacate his WBC title because he’s got a year to think it over before he decides to give up the belt or fight on.
Many boxing fans believe Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs) is waiting for the outcome of the August 20th rematch between unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua.
If the superstar Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) wins, Fury will immediately come out of phony retirement to face him for the undisputed championship.
However, if Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) wins, Fury will stay retired and likely wait to see if Joshua can get his hands on one of the belts in a year or two.
Fury is at the point in his life where he’s wealthy and only wants to fight for as much money green as possible. In other words, for Fury to get up off his backside to resume his career, it’s got to be a fight against Joshua that will make him an enormous amount of money.
Making $20 million+ in a fight against Usyk isn’t enough for Fury to get off the sofa. It’s difficult for the average boxing fan to understand a person not willing to work for $20 million+, but it’s different when you’re the one sitting on a reported net worth of $65 million that Fury has.
‘The Gypsy King’ has enough money to last him ten lifetimes, so he will not be motivated to resume his career for a mere $20M in a risky fight against Usyk.
“I’m all out of getting punched in the face for a few quid. Got plenty of money, still got my faculties and brains about me,” said Tyson Fury to iFL TV about his decision to retire from boxing.
See what I mean? The ambition isn’t there for Fury to resume his career unless it’s a fight against Joshua, where he would get potentially $100 million for that fight alone.
The risk of Fury turning down the green in a fight against Usyk is that Joshua might never win another world title. Let’s face it, Joshua is in the twilight of his career, and if he takes on WBA ‘regular’ champion Daniel Dubois for his secondary strap, he’ll likely get knocked out.
So unless one of the sanctioning bodies like the Boxing Council creates a trinket title for Joshua to win, he will likely not win another world title.
“[I’ve got] Six kids and a wife to look after. So if anyone wants to criticize me for that, they can go suck my b**** basically,” continued Fury, explaining why he’s not interested in risking a comeback.
“I’ve at least got a year, Mauricio Sulaiman said. Maybe in six months, I’ll feel different,” said Fury about his WBC title that he’s holding onto for some reason.
“At the minute, I don’t want to fight again, but you never know what six months will bring. When [a mandatory] comes up, I’ll make my final decision.”
