IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin, all set on winning his maiden defence against fellow unbeaten Anthony Joshua in London on April 9th, says he wants the big fights as champion and that Tyson Fury is a man very much on his radar. Whilst in the UK to help promote his fight with Joshua, “Prince” Charles spoke with Sky Sports, about Fury and the prospect of fighting him in particular.
Martin had nothing bad to say about Fury – who was stripped of the IBF title he now owns – even recalling how the often vocal Brit congratulated him from ringside on his winning the IBF belt Fury had called his own only weeks before. But, like practically every other active heavyweight out there, Martin says he wants to fight Fury.
“Sure, yes, yes,” Martin replied to Sky Sports when asked if he’d like a fight with Fury. “All the great fighters. That’s what I want to do. I’m not here to win a world title and waste my time with defences everybody knows I can beat. No, I wasn’t surprised [at Fury’s win over Klitschko last November]. You can’t dodge Father Time. Klitschko was a great fighter in his era. When he was in his prime, he was awesome. But we’re the young lions of the sport. You can’t do it forever, so that’s where Tyson Fury came into play and he handled his business. I take my hat off to that man for handling his business and he’s going to do the same when they fight again.”
If Martin can upset Joshua (the odds makers have “A.J” as the favourite and most pundits pick the 2012 Olympian to win, but some good judges – such as Tyson’s trainer/uncle Peter picks Martin) he will no doubt be in line for even bigger fights. We still don’t know, really, how good the southpaw is, but the April fight – although it is against a challenger who is also largely unproven at top level – is his biggest test to date. And if Martin is also right in his prediction of the Fury-Klitschko rematch, maybe he and Fury will fight later this year.
Fury Vs. Martin wouldn’t be as big a deal as Fury Vs. Joshua would be (in the UK anyway) but all unification fights are noteworthy. And maybe Fury, if he doesn’t get beaten by Klitschko in the sequel, and if he doesn’t retire through lack of motivation, will like the idea of trying to regain the IBF belt he never lost in the ring in the first place.