Tyson Fury & the Future of British Boxing
By Donald C. Stewart
There’s a lot going on in Heavyweight boxing in the UK.
There has been for some time. Some of it has been good and some of it not so. The very first Prizefighter series that was won by Martin Rogan was in the UK. It has grown into the first international Prizefighter won by a Cuban who is based in County Cork, Ireland.
The biggest selling fight of last year in the UK was David Haye’s World Heavyweight title dust up with Audley “A-Force” Harrison. This year the only Heavyweight match worthy of note, discussion and publicity is David Haye and fellow champion, Wladimir Klitschko.
The background of UK Heavyweights is looking a bit more stable thanks to sound Heavyweight prospects like Tom Dallas 15-0, 11 KO’s, Richard Towers 10-0 6 KO’s, David Price 10-0 8 KO’s and a man who’s name was designed for only one sport and he has found his feet within it – Tyson Fury 14-0,10 KO’s.
As an amateur, Fury was able to fight for both Ireland and the UK as he has dual nationality. Due to the rules in Olympic boxing that restrict countries to only one fighter at each weight division, Fury was unable to compete at Beijing in 2008.
The Super Heavyweight place went to David Price and after having tried unsuccessfully to find another way to get to the Olympics Fury turned pro. He could have waited until 2012 when the Olympics came to London but the current form and progress of young Anthony Joshua suggests he made the right choice.
Fury made his debut in a Carl Froch undercard and made light weight of his challenger. It was not a knock out but these began from fight three onwards. To date Fury has fought 15 times against many heavyweights that would not trouble the top 20 never mind those battling for belts.
One fight against John McDermott was controversial enough for the promoter to label the referee, Terry O’Connor, who called it, a “disgrace to British boxing”. The rematch saw Fury win comfortably.
You could imagine that people would question if Fury has the fight to get to the top but the main issue has been finding opponents. People don’t want to touch Fury. Fury has wanted to win the English and Irish titles, the UK belt then through the EBU before hitting the World. It’s very hard to hit the World’s notice when you are struggling to find people who can fight you at home.
His latest fight, against Brazilian, Marcelo Luiz Nascimento, was far from impressive.
Mind you Nascimento was far from impressive. David Haye would have called him a fat old lump or just another Klitschko opponent! Bizarrely, it was Nascimento’s first defeat on his record.
On paper it should have been the stepping stone to something, instead Nascimento was dispatched with enough ease for people to wonder why he got on the plane at all.
He was due to take on former heavyweight champion, Hasim Rahman, but that fight didn’t happen because Rahman didn’t want to take on a guy who had been training whilst he had been idle!
Rahman claims to have been offered the fight with two weeks to go but was not up for being the patsy to anyone. What both Fury and Rahman seem decided upon is not to take up a place on Prizefighter. Rahman was offered and turned it down whilst Fury seems destined to avoid it unless he cannot get someone to step into the ring with him.
Fury has called out everyone he thinks might be worth it and at present, there’s not too many that would respond. Fury looks like a real prospect that, once Haye has hung up his gloves could be up there with Dallas, Towers and Price as the next generation of British Heavyweights.
The worry is that they start to look at each other and decide they should fight each other rather than bide their time and get the titles between them. UK dominance by stealth!
That having been said if Fury cannot get a fight that stretches him there may need to be a domestic dust up to set things in motion. If the current DeGale versus Groves match tells us anything it is that there is a huge capacity for fights with back stories. Fury versus Price would sell and probably sell quite well.
Unfortunately, I do not think these are two fighters who hate each other as DeGale and Groves genuinely do! It is genuinely a pity as Fury will be a prospect and if he is able to get the experience under his belt then we could see genuine contender for the legacy of David Haye – no matter what that legacy may be.