By James Slater: Young, unbeaten Tyson Fury always makes for an interesting interview. Unafraid of speaking his mind, the 23-year-old with the 16-0(11) pro ledger recently spoke with sportsvibe.co.uk, and the British and Commonwealth Champ said he believes he is now ready to make his move at world level.
Fury faces fellow unbeaten Neven Pajkic of Canada next, but the towering contender is sure he will defeat the 16-0(5) operator, saying he has not underestimated Pajkic at all. Still, Tyson has other, bigger fights on his mind.
“I’m not thinking about the European [title] anymore,” Fury told sportsvibe. “I’m thinking about other things now, bigger things. I want the winner of Povetkin and Boswell. I’m ready to take Povetkin out, no problem, but he has to get past Boswell first.”
It seems just about everyone wants a piece of Povetkin’s piece of the WBA heavyweight title. Not in a long time has a new “world” Champion been looked at with such disdain by his fellow fighters. Ancient relics Evander Holyfield and Oliver McCall have expressed much interest in a fight with the unbeaten Russian, while relative up-and-comers such as Fury are now calling him out. 42-year-old Boswell gets first crack at Povetkin’s strap, as we know, and there has been talk of the winner facing WBA #1 heavyweight, former Champ Hasim Rahman next.
If this is how things shape up, Fury will have to wait a while longer; which will be no bad thing, seeing as he is only 23. Fury says he is sick and tired of people claiming there are no great heavies out there right now: claming that he himself is the real deal.
“I’m sick of all this talk about there being no great heavyweight fighters,” he said. “I’m here and I’m 23. I’ll be 17-0 with 12 knockouts [after the Pajkic fight], ready to fight anybody in the world.”
Is Fury the future of the heavyweight division that is currently being dominated by the two Klitschko brothers? Fury sure thinks so, as does Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward, who has spent considerable time working with the most talked about young heavyweight in the world today. At the rate he’s going, Fury is going to win over more and more critics, that much is certain. The next step is the Pajkic fight, set for Nov. 12th.
Fury said the Canadian will have to kill him to beat him.
“To take my (Commonwealth) title he really is going to have to kill me,” he stated. “There is no surrender in me.”
Fury closed by saying he will be WBA world champion “this time next year.” Assuming he defeats Pajkic (who is also talking a superb fight), and assuming his promoter Mick Hennessey can do the business with whoever it is that emerges from the Povetkin/Boswell/Rahman soup with the belt, maybe he will be.