Tyson Fury confirmed today that he’s retiring after Saturday’s final fight against Dillian Whyte and he WON’T stick around to face the winner of the Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk rematch.
WBC heavyweight champion Fury says his rationale for hanging up his gloves is that he doesn’t want to “risk brain damage” at this point.
With the punishment that Fury took in two of his grueling fights with Deontay Wilder, it’s quite understandable why he would choose to be choosing to retire from the sport.
Fury was knocked down four times in his three fights with ‘The Bronze Bomber,’ and knocked cold in one of them.
As for Joshua and Usyk, Fury says he tried to fight both of them, but they couldn’t get them made.
The fight that his management was able to put together is with Whyte, so he’s the one that he’ll face and that’ll be it with his career.
“I haven’t underestimated Dillian Whyte like a lot of people, saying, ‘He doesn’t have a chance,'” said Tyson Fury to talkSPORT moments before today’s final press conference.
“There comes a time when enough is enough,” said Fury when asked if he’s going to retire. I’ve tried to make the fight with the big dosser, AJ, and it’s never happened.
“All of a sudden this new guy comes on the scene, Usyk, and beats him up. People say, ‘Go fight him and beat him.’ You can’t keep moving goalposts on me. I had my heart set on fighting AJ, and it’s not happened.
“It hasn’t happened for the last five years, so what’s to say it’s ever going to happen. We tried to make the Usyk fight before this one, and we tried to make the AJ fight before this one. The only person we were able to get was Dillian Whyte, so fair play to him. He stepped up.
“It probably should be AJ on Saturday night, but it didn’t happen, so we’re fighting Dillian Whyte. This is the final time the GK [Gypsy King] will strap gloves on to go into the ring to entertain.
“Why? Enough is enough. For me, enough is enough,” said Fury when told that the world will clamor for him to fight Joshua next if he comes out victorious against Dillian on Saturday.
“I’m not a robot, so why do I want to keep risking things. I could get brain damage, I could get severely injured in the fight. It’s not like I’m playing a game of darts where I’m chucking a dart at a board and there are no severe injury-risk.
“Anything can go wrong at any given time. At this stage in my career, I’m nearly 34 as well and have everything to live for, why would I want to keep risking things,” said Fury.
