It’s not at all surprising, but heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, upon hearing like the rest of us who newly crowned IBF heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua will be facing in his first title defence, decided to put the boot in. Taking to his oft-used Twitter page shortly after reading how Joshua will defend against Dominic Breazeale on June 25th, Fury started off by saying we should all give Joshua a break, as he is still learning and doesn’t need to face a killer in his maiden defence.
“Lets not give @Anthony Joshua a hard time over his opponent, just remember he has only had 16 fights, & still learning,” Fury wrote.
Not too bad, but then Fury roared back onto Twitter minutes later to let us know he was only joking!
“BTW I was only f*****g joking with you guys, AJ is fighting a total BumCity. @EddieHearn at it again joke, imagine if I was gonna fight Brazile (Breazeale) lol,” he wrote.
In fairness, Fury would likely have got slated had he opted to fight Breazeale in a title defence, but of course, Fury never had the luxury of a voluntary defence. Fury was contracted to fight Wladimir Klitschko in an immediate rematch as we all know. But is Breazeale, 17-0(15) and, like Joshua a former Olympian (not a medallist like Joshua though; Breazeale losing in his first bout at London 2012) really such a bad opponent? Tall, athletic and possessing heart (as he showed in getting off the deck to stop Amir Mansour in his last fight, back in January) the man known as “Trouble” is far from the worst heavyweight title challenger in history, that’s for sure.
But at the same time, you cannot fail to understand why Fury is so annoyed. He has had no easy route to the world title, nor is he having any easy defences. If Fury beats Klitschko again on July 9th, he will then be expected to fight a big name like a Deontay Wilder or – somewhat ironically – an Anthony Joshua in his next fight. There is tremendous pressure on Fury to continue proving he is the best heavyweight on the planet. Of course, a lot of this pressure was put on Fury’s shoulders by the man himself, but it’s true there are no easy fights out there for him.
Will Joshua have an easy night against Breazeale in June? Fury clearly thinks so.