Boxing fans around the world would have been somewhat perturbed to hear Tyson Fury announce that he was going to stop training until a fight with Anthony Joshua was officially secured. The Englishman’s comments came while he was doing some ringside punditry work for ESPN and left everyone listening to them uncertain of what to make of the entire situation.
Admittedly, the boxing world is full of smoke and mirrors and the politics involved in becoming the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world are complex to say the very least. But if we are to take Fury’s comments at face value, there could be genuine cause for concern.
Worryingly, Fury has a tendency to fall into bad habits when he doesn’t have the refuge of the gym to fall back on. Indeed, a rigorous and uncompromising schedule of training works to anchor the boxer’s life given that it provides him with purpose and meaning. Without that system in place, history shows that Fury becomes out of sync and prone to self-destruction.
It was just two years ago that the world witnessed his very public breakdown as he battled to fight the demons that had taken over his life. The unfortunate episode started after Fury reached the dizziest of heights in Dusseldorf Germany when he won boxing’s greatest prize, the world heavyweight championship. It was a result few had predicted and the high that the 32-year-old must have felt that night as he stood on the summit of world boxing wouldn’t have been like anything he had ever remotely experienced before.
A period of inactivity out of the ring was to follow which saw Fury try and find that feeling again but without boxing that had given his life meaning ever since he was a teenager, the Englishman was well and truly lost.
Over the summer of 2017, he swapped the grind of his local gym for the sun loungers on Spain’s Costa del Sol. Over those summer months, it seemed like with every passing day a new video of an out-of-shape Fury would show up on social media and prompt boxing fans to fear for not only his life career but also his life.
By now, you can probably connect the dots of the point we’re making. But are we being overly cynical? Could Fury actually be trying to force Anthony Joshua’s camp into arranging a fight? After all, the outcry from the boxing world upon hearing Fury’s comments seemed to suggest that the ball is now firmly in Joshua’s court.
You wouldn’t put it past Fury given how shrewd an operator he is. This is a man that has spent his life outfoxing his opponents and this could well be an engineered move that is designed to heap the pressure on Joshua and his promoter, Eddie Hearn.
What’s more, is that there are still odds on this heavyweight showdown actually taking place. All punters need to do is check the best US betting sites in 2021 on SBO.net and they will see as much. Naturally, these recommended American betting sites have great reputations and offer the best lines in the industry which includes heavyweight boxing. After all, the most important aspect of a sportsbook is that you can trust it to provide quality service.
The only disappointment boxing fans will feel is if this fight doesn’t go ahead. Indeed, that would be a crushing blow to the industry and the potential fallout in Fury’s life doesn’t bear thinking about. Decisions will now have to be made and the need for a line to be drawn under this latest development is pressing.
All eyes will now be on Eddie Hearn and Anthony Joshua and the moves they make next. Encouragingly, Hearn is a promoter who doesn’t make it a habit to look a gift horse in the mouth and when you consider the money that this fight would generate, you can all of a sudden imagine that a mad scramble for Fury’s number took place at the headquarters of Matchroom Sport after Fury’s comments.
For everyone’s sake, this long-awaited heavyweight showdown of the ages needs to finally take place.