Fury revealed he is planning his retirement heading into Saturday’s WBC heavyweight showdown against Dillian Whyte
Tyson Fury has admitted he only has “a couple of fights left” in him after revealing he is planning his retirement heading into this Saturday’s WBC heavyweight showdown against Dillian Whyte.
The self-professed ‘Gypsy King’ will walk to the ring at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night for the 33rd time in his professional career. But despite lucrative fights potentially on offer against both Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua and being the fairly modest age of 33 years old, Fury believes that win or lose against Whyte he does not have much left in the tank.
“I’m getting too old for this, I’m too long in the tooth for this – I’m 34 this year,” admitted Fury. “I’ve had everything to deal with – weight loss, ups and downs, alcohol problems, drug problems. I’m probably around about 60 [years old] when it comes to boxing years.
“I’m not in this for a long time, I’m in it for a good time. I’ve got a couple of fights left and then that’s me done.
“I’m still batting on, taking care of things, I’m going to take care of a few fights and then we’ll see. I’m looking forward to all these fights. Whatever fights come up next, they’re the ones I’m looking forward to.”
Fury also knows Father Time is coming for him. “Boxing for me doesn’t mean fighting world champions, young guys coming up because I’ve studied boxing and know the history of it. Every dog has his day whether you’re the greatest or not, age catches up very quickly so you’ve got to move over for the younger guys.”
As an example of that, Fury looked back to his victory over Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 when the Briton won the world title before his two years in the wilderness.
“Klitschko all those years ago, I said to him ‘you were a good champion in your day, a good man. But Father Time has caught up with you. I said ‘you’ve got to move over for the younger guys coming through, give us a chance’.
“I’m the same now and I’m not far off the same age Wladimir was when I beat him.
“There are some guys, Bob Arum’s top American guy, Jared Anderson, coming through. Twenty-two years old, the guy is unbelievable. I tipped him as a future heavyweight champion as soon as I sparred him. You’ve got guys like that coming through. Guys like Filip Hrgovic, Tony Yoka, Joe Joyce. The mistake Wladimir made was he wanted to take on the next era of champions and it didn’t work out for him.”
The incumbent champion and firm favourite Fury is refusing to underestimate his rival ahead of their battle in front of 94,000 fans at Wembley Stadium. “I don’t overlook anybody, I give everybody the respect they deserve as an opponent because the minute you overlook an opponent, you fall off the cliff and die,” Fury said.
Whyte meanwhile has vowed to give Fury a rematch if he defeats the champion, who he hailed as the “greatest heavyweight of all time” on Thursday.
“Me vs Tyson Fury – most believe he’s the best of all time, why would I not want to fight the best of all time again?,” explained Whyte.
“There’s no rematch clause when you’re the mandatory challenger, but if I win on Saturday and it’s a good fight, I’ll fight him again. I want to fight the best.
“For me, that would be amazing. Imagine… if I fight him two or three times and never fight again…I’m easy. It means I beat the best of all time. I’m not someone to run away from fights, I want to fight the best fights.”
While Fury has revealed that he had promised his wife, Paris, that retirement will come soon, Whyte, meanwhile, has received both wise counsel and inspiration from his mother. “Hey, you have one mum and whatever mum says, you listen. When I was young, I didn’t listen to my mum, but as you get older, you realise your parents were right. There were a lot of times I didn’t listen to my mum and I regret not listening to her.”
“Now if she says something, I listen. Before the press conference, she said ‘Son, behave yourself, Don’t do anything crazy’. I said ‘I’m cool, I’m relaxed, I’m chilled’.”