Tyson Fury on fighting Oleksandr Usyk: “It will never happen”

By: Sean Crose

“That’s never going to happen,” WBC heavyweight and heavyweight champion Tyson Fury said on Thursday, “because I’m retired.” Talk to talkSPORT, Fury is discussing the chance he could one day take on WBA, WBO and IBF prestigious Oleksandr Usyk. And, being Tyson Fury, the man certainly won’t hold back. “Let’s just say I wanted to punch him around the ring,” he said, “because he was middleweight, blew up.” Usyk, for the record, was the undisputed cruiser champion of the world before moving up to heavyweight.

Fury last saw action on Saturday when he dominated Dillian Whyte in front of nearly 100,000 people at Wembley Stadium. The match closed with a thunderous 6th round Fury knockout, the third Fury in a row to finish in the gap. The previous two were brutal love affairs with American heavyweight assassin Deontay Wilder. Now, at 33 and a 32-0-1 record, Fury is insisting he has nothing left to prove. “I was the undisputed champion,” he said. “I won every belt there was to win. I have nothing more to do. I’m out, fully retired, done. ”

It can be argued that Fury has never been the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, as he has never held all of the world heavyweight championship belts at once. It could also be argued that Fury could indeed return to the ring. Simply put, the man is known to say all sorts of things. In fact, Fury is the current master of professional boxing. Whether he claims to be retired now, is ready to fight a UFC champion in a “hybrid” bout, or both, it’s hard to discern which of Fury’s claims will be proven true.

One thing is for sure – Fury is now the first major contender in the post-Klitschko era. He’s beaten Wilder twice, and Anthony Joshua, who was recently considered to be on par with Fury, was beaten by Usyk last fall as the Ukrainian eliminated multiple world championship belts around British tennis player waist. However, boxing can use a truly undisputed and linear heavyweight champion of the world. Fury is now just three belts away from being able to make any claims about the ring that are undisputed to be true. To officially become the undisputed champion, Fury will have to face the winner in the upcoming Usyk-Joshua rematch and win. For now, at least, that’s not what the boxer dubbed the “King of Gypsy” wants to do.