Tyson Fury says he’s only going to be doing exhibition fights from now on after signaling that he’s retiring after his sixth-round knockout victory over Dillian Whyte last Saturday night.
Surprisingly, WBC heavyweight champion Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs) doesn’t fancy the idea of fighting Anthony Joshua or Oleksandr Usyk because he wants to go out on a high with his win over Whyte (28-3, 19 KOs).
Many of the 94,000 boxing fans at ringside at Wembley Stadium in London booed Fury when he revealed that he was only going to be doing exhibition matches and that he had no desire to fight the Joshua vs. Usyk 2 winner.
Fury peddling exhibition match against Ngannou
In what appeared to be a pre-planned move on Fury’s part, he had UFC heavyweight Francis Ngannou enter the ring immediately after the fight last Saturday so that they could announce to the fans that they intend on fighting an exhibition match soon.
It was more than a little troubling that Fury had Ngannou in the ring rather than Joshua or Usyk. Ngannou has never fought a boxing match before, and even though he’s powerful, he would stand no chance of beating Fury in a boxing match without the grappling & kicking that’s done in the UFC.
Fury using his time in the spotlight to try and sell an exhibition match between him and Ngannou was like someone trying to sell a pair of old shoes to the fans.
We’ve already seen that MMA guys are like fish out of water in boxing matches. They always lose, and it’s utterly predictable how the fight will end. It wouldn’t be a big deal for Ngannou to fight Fury if he’d already had 20 or so fights under his belt in boxing and had beaten someone noteworthy.
“This is the end. I owed the fans one farewell fight tonight. I’m going out on a high,” said Fury to Queensbury Promotions after his win over Whyte.
“If I fight again, it’ll be exhibition fights only, wrestling matches and stuff like that. Entertaining, and stuff that isn’t nerve-wracking and doesn’t keep you up at night and get you in severe injuries,” said Fury.
It sounds like Fury has lost his nerve for the sport, which is sad, but I guess those three fights against Deontay Wilder took something out of him in the courage department.
“There will be, and there will always be somebody else to fight,” said Fury, shutting down the question of whether he’ll fight the winner of the Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk rematch.
“It was messy, and an awkward affair,” said Carl Froch to iFL TV on Fury’s win over Whyte. “I think he did,” Froch said when asked if it was Fury that made the fight awkward. “He kept himself out of harm’s way, he was clever with his reach and his footwork was clever.”
