Undefeated heavyweight champion Tyson Fury insists a back injury he first sustained in 2008, which has just flared up again, will do nothing to stop him from being ready to fight, and again defeat, Wladimir Klitschko whenever the rematch is finally set. Speaking with The Mirror, Fury revealed how he was “hit in the back by Richard Towers over in the Ingles’ gym in Sheffield” eight years ago and has suffered pain ever since.
Fury said the lower back pain came back after helping his cousin, unbeaten heavyweight contender Hughie Fury, get ready for last Saturday’s fight with Dominick Guinn. Despite the pain – Fury says his back “goes into spasm” whenever he is hit there – the self-styled “Gypsy King” says he will not “do what [David] Haye did to me” and pull out on Klitschko.
“Listen, when they announce the date, I’ll be ready,” he stated. “They don’t call me the Gypsy Warrior for nothing! It’s what I was born to do.”
Fury said Klitschko and the former champion’s team are deliberately “messing about” in getting the rematch set, in the hope that Fury will “put on ten stone (140-pounds) and self-detonate.” Fury is adamant that this will not be the case, but he did warn that unless the rematch date is announced soon, he will “move on to somebody else.”
“They’re not coming up with a date and whatever. We can’t agree. So if we can’t come to terms, I’ll move on to somebody else,” Fury said. “[But] when I get the date, I’ll go straight back in the gym and start working it off. He’s getting older by the day, so it doesn’t matter to me, all this.”
Fury, as he acknowledges, has put on weight since the November win, but with the date of July 9th now being the one bandied around as most likely for the return fight, the big man will have enough time to get ready. But what is Klitschko waiting for? The rematch has to happen as per the contractual agreement the two fighters have, so why the delay in announcing the fight? It really is getting tiresome now.
Fury comes across as a man who just wants to get on with it and fight. Klitschko has reportedly began intense training himself, so hopefully that official announcement will come soon. Fury could have, perhaps should have, kept his back problem a secret (unless it’s nothing but talk, designed to create a smokescreen!) – because it is now a potential (if illegal) target for the former champion.
Will Klitschko bite?