Tyson Fury is training every day; Although no one knows for certain if he'll come back for the Anthony Joshua vs Oleksandr Usyk winner, promoter Frank Warren believes Fury would beat rival champion Usyk; Watch Usyk vs Joshua II live on Sky Sports Box Office on August 20
Wednesday 10 August 2022 11:11, UK
Tyson Fury ending his declared retirement will reshape the heavyweight division.
Fury is training but his promoter, even his gym-mates, do not know if he will come back to fight the winner of Oleksandr Usyk vs Anthony Joshua.
On August 20 Joshua fights Usyk to try to win back the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles, live on Sky Sports Box Office.
Whatever the result, the clamour for Tyson Fury, the WBC champion, to take on the winner to decide the undisputed king of the heavyweight division will only grow.
His UK promoter Frank Warren will leave Fury to make that decision himself. But Warren has been consistently optimistic that he would be back.
"I speak to him all the time. If he wants to fight, he'll fight. I'm not going to tempt him. Because if he needs that then he shouldn't be fighting," Warren told Sky Sports. "It's got to come from him and his heart.
"Do I think we'll see Tyson in a ring [again]? I do because I think he's a fighting man and I think he'll miss it too much."
Warren can only see the eagerness for Fury's return continuing to grow. "The fans love him. He's got a real rapport with the man on the street," his promoter said.
"He's different class. And he'll do what he wants to do."
Warren thinks Usyk will retain his titles in the rematch with Joshua, but would back Fury to beat him.
"I saw [Usyk] against Chazz Witherspoon, he had that fight and then he obviously fought [Derek] Chisora and he looked alright. Against Joshua he looked different class," Warren said. "[Joshua] didn't use any of his physical attributes. I didn't understand why.
"I felt that he would out-jab him or keep him on the end of the jab and let the right hand go but he didn't. He was getting out-jabbed by a smaller guy on the outside. I thought the only way Usyk was going to do any damage was to get underneath inside and work inside. But he didn't have to do that. He was beating him on the outside.
"How do you fight him? I really do fancy Tyson to beat him. I think Tyson is a similar guy in some ways and a much, much bigger guy."
If Joe Joyce beats Joseph Parker on September 24, he will remain one of the leading contenders to challenge the winner of Usyk-Joshua. But even he thinks Fury should come back to box the victor in that fight.
"I'm not telling him what to do but he should fight the winner of AJ-Usyk," Joyce said. "That's a question for Fury because he's saying he's won everything, still got his 0, undefeated. There are still fights out there."
Joseph Parker trains regularly in the same gym in Morecambe with Fury. But he could not say with any certainty that Fury was preparing for a specific fight date.
"We're working out every day. I think he's training for his mental health and he's training because it's a part of his life. In terms of coming back, I have no idea. He might come back tomorrow… Who knows?" Parker told Sky Sports.
"I'm surrounding myself with great people and he is a great person to have in camp and to be training with."
Even with Fury indicating a return, there will still be other options for the leading heavyweights, especially as the top end of the division is crammed with British fighters. Joyce for instance could rematch Daniel Dubois.
"It's there to be done. It's a big fight. I would love to see that. It depends how it all shakes out on August 20 and what Tyson decides to do," Warren said.
"There are some good fights there to be made. In the British heavyweight division, who'd ever have thought we'd be like this? I certainly never did. When I started out it was an impossibility."
Anthony Joshua's huge heavyweight rematch against Oleksandr Usyk is on Saturday August 20, live on Sky Sports Box Office. Book Usyk vs Joshua 2 now!
