Former heavyweight world champion Lennox Lewis has predicted that Tyson Fury will only make good on his promises to retire once he has beaten Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua.
Joshua and WBC belt holder Fury had appeared on the cusp of a fight to settle who was the undisputed heavyweight champion last year, but ultimately Fury fought Deontay Wilder in his trilogy rematch, successfully defending his belt. Meanwhile Joshua lost to Usyk and will fight - probably this July - for the IBF, WBA and WBO belts.
Fury has often suggested he would retire only to come back to the sport, and he is making the same claim ahead of his fight with Dillian Whyte on Saturday night.
Lewis however believes that Fury is the division’s top fighter and that will keep him in action at least until he has fought Usyk.
“You look at the guys who are out there,” Lewis told PA News. “Can he beat them? He probably can. He is the top heavyweight in the world right now.
“Does he want to beat them? It’s really up to him. I’ve heard him saying he wants to retire. I don’t know whether he’s saying that for real or not but it’ll be sad if he doesn’t fight Usyk.
“I didn’t know if the Mike Tyson fight was ever going to happen but I knew I wanted it to happen because I didn’t want anybody saying ‘Tyson would have beaten you’. Now they can’t say that, they have to say ‘you’re the best, you beat Tyson’.”
Lewis suggested Whyte stands a chance against Fury, saying: “I know Dillian Whyte’s ready; he’s strong, he throws a great hook, great jab. I’ve seen him improving over his last few fights so this is the main fight he has to be ready for.
“He really needs to step on the gears and really go after him and hit what he can hit. It’s going to be hard to box against a 6ft 9in guy.
“I boxed against a 6ft 9in guy and I know how hard it is to hit them. It takes a few rounds to get acclimatised and I think it’ll take Dillian a few rounds to get acclimatised with Tyson Fury as well.
“If I was boxing Tyson, what would I do to win? I would jab him first and then knock him with my right hand, and then give him the wake-up punch where you hit him and he goes ‘who’s that?’
“He’s a great guy, a great personality. He gives you a great fight and then he sings afterwards, it’s incredible.
“It would have been great to fight him in my era and it would have been an absolutely great fight.”