John Fury, the father of WBC heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury, has had his say on his son’s upcoming clash with Deontay Wilder. Tyson appeared set to be taking on Anthony Joshua in a huge unification bout in Saudi Arabia, but Wilder’s right to a rematch with the man who defeated him in February 2020 was approved by an arbiter earlier this month.
Fury is now facing Wilder for a third time on July 25th whilst it looks like Joshua will defend his WBO crown against mandatory challenger, Oleksandr Usyk. Although that’s not the worst-case scenario for the heavyweight division, it doesn’t provide fight fans with fight they desperately crave. Fury’s dad is unhappy with how the situation has unfolded.
"This is what happens when you get to the top; there's a lot of leaches out there, a lot of hangers on,” said Fury in an interview with BT Sport. “You can see what's happening in America with him - appalling work to be honest with you. It's diabolical, isn't it?
“You're geared up to fight one man, and all of a sudden on the 11th hour it's all sorted in 24 hours. He's signing contracts in a whole other boxing venue. They're around him like locusts. I'm thinking to myself 'how can he think straight?'
Fury added, "He can blame his team, no one else. Anything rushed is no good and that's been rushed. He was fighting AJ; I wanted him to fight AJ - I had no interest in Deontay Wilder. I told him in a phone conversation to chuck the belt in the bin, let him [Wilder] have it and fight AJ on August 14 as was planned.
"I'm concerned whether Tyson can raise his game for Wilder. Whether he gets complacent, makes a mistake. It's got a good chance of going wrong out there. The danger point is getting fair play out there. At the minute, the American boxing fraternity has been embarrassed from the last escapade.
"Why wouldn't you take a $20 million step-aside without fighting and a guaranteed shot at the winner, when you're fighting for a lot less money and you're risking getting your skull caved in again. It doesn't make sense, so obviously the powers that be in America are involved, they're calling the shots and trapped them both.”