There are currently nothing but questions surrounding world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury: will he be stripped of his title(s)? How bad is his mental, and physical, condition? Will he attend the scheduled drugs test hearing that is looming? Will Fury even box again?
One man who is convinced we have seen the last of Fury inside a boxing ring is Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn, promoter, of course, of rival heavyweight, IBF champ Anthony Joshua. Hearn, in speaking with BBC Sport, said he feels Fury will be stripped and that as a result the unbeaten 28-year-old will have a ‘That’s it, I’m done’ attitude.
“Fury will be stripped of his titles and, after a legal battle, he’ll say: ‘No more I’m done’,”Hearn said. “It’s going to be really messy and it could take a year to resolve. I know there are sensitivities around mental health issues but this is a business. The governing bodies have had enough. The world heavyweight title is a huge part of their business and they’ve not made any money from it for a year.”
Hearn may well be proven correct – and money does talk – but for what it’s worth, I think Fury will keep at least one of his belts. One of the organisations whose belt he holds will likely give Fury “champ in recess” or some other such status. But as to whether or not Fury will be well enough, or have the urge to fight, and train, again – who knows? It’s likely that at this point in time even Fury himself has no real idea if he will fight again or not.
It will be a shame if Fury has seen his career reach its peak and then come to an end at the same time. A good, talented fighter, Fury may well have had true greatness in his future. A genuine character, one who has been no stranger to controversy for some time, Fury sure made his own distinctive impact on the sport. Let’s hope Hearn is wrong and we are about to witness a great boxing comeback.
And a quick word must go out to former champ Wladimir Klitschko, the man Fury defeated last year: imagine what he’s going through, so “obsessed” as he is with getting revenge over Tyson. The opportunity to “put things right” may now never come for Wladimir.
