Tyson Fury freed to box by UKAD, sends message to Joshua

By Scott Gilfoid: After 2 years out of the ring, former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) was given the green light by the UK Anti-Doping agency to continue his pro career, once he gets his boxing license back from the BBBofC.

Upon being told by UKAD that he could continue fighting, Fury took to Twitter to send this message to IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua:

”Anthony Joshua, where you at boy? I’m coming for you punk. Ain’t no one blocking my path now!👊🏻”

Well, Fury still must get his license back from the British Boxing Board of Control, so there is technically someone temporarily blocking him from taking the money fight with Joshua. Fury also plans on fighting fringe contender Tony Bellew, if he gets past David Haye in their rematch on May 5 in London, England. I suspect that Bellew will be soundly beaten by Haye in that fight. As such, Fury will need to decide whether to STILL fight Bellew or take a big career risk and fight Haye. I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for Fury to agree to a fight with Haye. Its likely Fury will make the weak move of fighting Bellew anyway regardless of how badly Haye beats him in the rematch.

As for Fury’s career, he’s now free to continue fighting following his agreement to accept a 2-year backdated bad, which conveniently for him ends at midnight tonight.

Fury being able to box again means big money for him and potentially Joshua and Bellew. I can’t say that Bellew deserves a Fury fight, but that match-up will play big in the UK due to Bellew being popular in that area of the world after appearing in the Rocky movie, ‘Creed.’ Fury’s cousin Hughie Fury will be free to fight again as well. Hughie volunteered to face Dillian Whyte on February 3 at the O2 Arena, but that fight isn’t going to happen. Whyte’s promoter Eddie Hearn says that Lucas Browne and Agit Kabayel are the options for Dillian, not Hughie.

Tyson Fury tested positive for a banned substance last year in June. He says it was from eating tainted meat.

Fury said this to skysports.com about his UKAD ruling:

“I’m a fighting man through and through and I’ve never backed down from anyone in my life and I was certainly not going to back down from fighting this dispute. Hughie and I have maintained our innocence from day one and we’re now happy that it has finally been settled with UKAD and that we can move forward knowing that we’ll not be labeled drug cheats. I can now put the nightmare of the last two years behind me.”

Depending on the ruling by the British Boxing Board of Control, Fury will either be allowed to continue his career or not. The BBBofC will be looking at not only Fury’s past positive test for a banned substance from 2016, but also at his mental health issues. They could potentially prevent Fury from continuing his career, although they’re expected to rule in his favor to allow him to continue his career.

Fury, 29, has lost a lot of weight in his workouts at Ricky Hatton’s gym, and he plans on being in top condition when he fights in the first quarter of 2018. They’re looking at options for Fury’s tune-up opponent for April or May. Fury isn’t expected to fight Bellew until the summer at least if that fight takes place. It would mean a lot to British boxing if Bellew beats Haye in the rematch. There’s a lot of money that can be made in a Fury vs. Bellew fight. Fury is not interested in fighting Haye, so it won’t be a good thing if the Hayemaker defeats Bellew in their fight on May 5. Unfortunately, Bellew will likely lose to Haye and perhaps badly without him suffering another injury. Bellew doesn’t really belong at heavyweight in my opinion. He was losing to Haye until he suffered an injury in the 6th. Without the benefit of the injury, Bellew likely would have lost a lopsided decision to Haye last March.

Bellew’s promoter Eddie Hearn is already yapping about the Fury-Bellew fight even with a huge roadblock in front of the ‘Bomber’ in Haye.

“That is a fight that can be built into something huge,” said Hearn to skysports.com about Fury vs. Bellew. ”Two completely different characters, two completely different styles, two undefeated heavyweights, and two unified champions. An incredible match up,”said Hearn.

I don’t agree with Hearn about the 213-pound Bellew being a good match-up with Fury. That’s going to be a tremendous mismatch. Given that the Fury vs. Bellew fight is going to be sold on Sky Box Office pay-per-view in the UK, I don’t see it as a good deal. Bellew is going to be giving away at least 40 pounds and 6 inches in height to the 6’9” Fury in that fight. That’s a huge mismatch in terms of size. Bellew wasn’t even considered a big fighter when he was fighting at cruiserweight. The large cruiserweights are Aleksandr Usyk, Murat Gassiev and Mairis Briedis. Bellew is slender compared to those guys. Bellew was never tested against those guys. After beating the flawed Illunga Makabu last year to win the WBC cruiserweight title, Bellew steered around Briedis and took a fight against #14 WBC fringe contender BJ Flores, who he beat after nailing him with a low blow in the final sequence of the fight. Bellew didn’t stick around to defend his WBC title against Briedis after that win. I wouldn’t mind seeing Fury fight Bellew in his first fight in 2018 as a tune-up opponent, but not as a PPV fight. Bellew is too unproven at heavyweight, and like I said, he didn’t fight any of the good cruiserweights when he was in that division. Bellew dashed away from the cruiserweight division just when the World Boxing Council were about to order him to fight Briedis.

Fury will make a lot of money beating up on Bellew to get to an even bigger money fight against Joshua in late 2018. That’s the fight the boxing public wants to see. I expect Fury to lose to Joshua next year. After that, it remains to be seen whether Fury retires from boxing or not. I suspect he’ll retire after he loses to Joshua.