Tyson Fury says he’ll fight 3 times in 2018

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) surprised a lot of boxing fans on Thursday when he announced on Twitter that he would be fighting 3 times in 2018, starting in April. Fury hasn’t fought in 2 years, doesn’t have a boxing license to fight, and he was as big as a house in recent interviews. Of course, Fury says all kinds of things on Twitter on a weekly basis. It’s hard to take him seriously at this point because he changes his mind so frequently.

Fury fighting even once in 2018 would be a complete shocker. Fighting 3 times is basically a pipe dream on Fury’s part.

Fury, 29, says he won’t be applying to the British Boxing Board of Control (BBB of C) for his license. He’ll go somewhere else to make his cash. Just where that will be is the big question. Since Fury’s fan base is in the UK, it makes you wonder if it would work for him to fight elsewhere.

”Be ready to fight in April 2018 in a great fight! & again in the summer in a mega fight! & again in back end of year. 3 big fights in 2018,” said Fury said on his social media.

Fury still have a UK anti-doping hearing that he’s waiting on. Presumably that will need to be taken care of before Fury can fight again in any country. I can’t imagine Fury being allowed to fight again outside of the UK if he doesn’t take care of the UK anti-doping hearing first.

If Fury can get a boxing license to fight outside of the UK, then could potentially be back inside the ring in April. I don’t expect Fury to have taken off all the weight that he’s put on though in the last 2 years. Fighting 3 times in 2018 is unbelievable. It’s more likely that Fury will fight once, and then reward himself by taking it easy after the win and putting on a bunch of weight. That’s kind of standard for him. Fury gets a win and then gets badly out of shape in between fights.

Fury last fought in November 2015 in beating Wladimir Klitschko. That was one of Fury’s best performances of his career. If Fury could have gotten back into the ring to face Wladimir in a rematch in the first half of 2016, he would have made a massive amount of money. Instead, Fury lived it up and had a great time, putting on weight and missing out on a big opportunity against Klitschko.

WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker’s manager David Higgins sees Fury as an option for his fighter if he can’t make a deal with Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn for a fight between Parker and IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. Higgins is talking about staging a Tyson Fury vs. Parker fight at Old Trafford in Manchester, England. It has a seating capacity of 75,643. That might be a bit too big for a Fury fight. I would be thinking more in terms of 20,000 boxing fans. I can’t see Fury being able to fill Old Trafford unless he’s fighting someone popular like Anthony Joshua.

“I honestly do believe that Tyson Fury will make a comeback and if Hearn’s offer for Joshua is anything less than respectable, then we would rather go to Old Trafford and fight Tyson Fury on a 50-50, or something like that,” said Higgins to skysports.com.

That sounds like a dream fight, but I don’t see it happening without Fury applying and receiving his boxing license with the BBB of C. Perhaps Higgins isn’t aware that Fury is stubbornly saying he won’ apply for a license with the BBB of C. Fury would be his own worst enemy if he doesn’t apply for his license with the BBF of C. He’s pretty much got to do that, because he’s not going to be able to fight in the UK without a boxing license.

“Make it clear), I’ll not apply to the BBB of C for a new license I’ll go elsewhere, take my money & business to somewhere that appreciate it,” said Fury earlier this month.

If Fury were to fight Parker, he could avenge Hughie Fury’s loss from last month on September 23. Parker beat Hughie by a 12 round majority decision by the scores 118-110, 118-110 and 114-114. Hughie looked really bad in that fight and he didn’t even try to fight. It was pure running and holding from Hughie. You can make an argument that the fight should have been stopped at some point when it was clear that Hughie had no intentions of fighting.

Fury would be making a mistake to go straight into a fight against a good heavyweight like Parker. That’s a fight that Fury needs to build up to before taking. Fury isn’t going to slap and move his way to a victory against Parker, especially now that the New Zealand fighter has beaten Hughie. That was more of a track meet than a boxing event. Tyson Fury doesn’t move half as well as Hughie does, and Parker was able to get to him all night. When Parker would catch up to Hughie, he would immediately be wrapped up in a clinch. On average, I counted 8 clinches per round initiated by Hughie, and those were the 8 instances where Parker would cut off the ring to catch up to Hughie.

Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn will do whatever they can to make sure that Fury doesn’t get the fight against Parker first. They’re not going to want to see Fury potentially pull off an upset and take the WBO belt. If Fury wins the WBO title, then that could complicate things. Fury would be in the position to ask for more money as a world champion than he would going into the fight facing a world champion with 2 titles. I don’t know if Fury will be able to beat the 25-year-old Parker. He can take a punch, and he’s got excellent punching power in either hand. There are a lot of things Fury will need to do before he can share the ring with Parker. Fury will need his boxing license, and he’ll need to lose from 70 to 100 pounds. The fight will need to be negotiated. If Joshua decides he wants the fight with Parker, then Fury can forget about it.