By Terence Dooley
When Peter Fury Tweeted the news that Tyson Fury’s rematch with Wladimir Klitschko would take place in Manchester on July 9 his message was met with a mixture of excitement and disbelief.
Klitschko coming to the U.K. is huge for the domestic scene, so naturally enough one or two people pooh-poohed the notion out of hand when the Tweet dropped on Friday morning.
Fury, though, had already tied up the deal and the fight was formally unveiled yesterday. He also confirmed that it will take place at the Manchester Arena as well going out live on BoxNation TV here in the U.K. and RTL in Germany.
With the deal now done and dusted, the trainer caught up with BoxingScene to discuss all things Fury as well as casting his eye over Anthony Joshua’s ascension to the IBF title courtesy of a stunning second-round KO win over Charles Martin on Saturday night.
“It was not so much difficult to get him out of Germany, it was just difficult to get the fight on for all sort of reasons,” said Fury when asked if getting Wlad to travel had been a big ask.
“There was talk of venues, dates and whether the TV stations can do it. It’s all got to slot into place as we have RTL from Germany as well to consider—the timings all had to be right. You’ve just got to look at it all as a whole and you’re left with July 9 as the only date.”
The Furys have entered into tricky negotiations before, most notably when dealing with Wlad the first time around and when signing on to meet David Haye for two injury-aborted fights. This time, however, Peter felt very comfortable over the prospect of the deal coming together.
“It was different to the Haye fiascos because there is a guy who didn’t want to fight, Klitschko isn’t that type of a fighter—he wants the fight so there’s no comparisons at all,” he said.
As for the venue, some have argued that they should have held out for a stadium fight—with Old Trafford mooted as a possibility—yet Fury is more than happy with their choice.
“Let’s not forget that it’s the biggest indoor arena in Europe,” he said. “It is a good arena and it’s not always about maximizing revenues by looking at Wembley and all of that—it’s about the fans.
“The last time, the fans went out to Germany to support Tyson and spent their own money to do that. Tyson took it from the Champion’s backyard. Now his fans can watch him defend it without the same expense, which is massive for us.”
Klitschko is 40 and has had a long career, some have already written him off going into the return. Fury, though, believes that the fire still burns in the Ukrainian and that the loss to Tyson will have further ignited something inside him.
“Wladimir still has got a massive desire to win, he is a consummate professional who wants to go into the Hall of Fame as a great who regained his title three times,” he argued. “It is much bigger for him than it is for us in some ways.”
With Joshua’s rise, the emergence of fresh new talent and titles on the move, the heavyweight division is lively again and attracting plenty of attention.
Indeed, Peter's Tweet attracted a lot of interest, with one or two publications running reports that the fight was in jeopardy when the noon announcement deadline came and went.
BoxingScene stood firm, as did Fury; he told me that as far as he is concerned his word is his bond and it was just a matter of waiting for the press release. He said: “Look, I try my best for the fans, I’m not some 20-faced idiot or some cloak-and-dagger one—I don’t see what the problem is.
“I’m not into this media circus that the people like to follow—Tyson is the heavyweight Champion of the world, end of story. No one went over to Germany and did what he’s done. These other guys, the promoters do more than the fighters these days. Tyson is the real deal, the best man on the planet at this time—and he will prove that again on July 9.
“People gave me their word, it was all signed up, so I announced it to the public to give the fans the information they want, it just wasn’t ready for the official announcement yet. Then you get these idiots coming on and going: ‘He’s shot the bolt, it’s not happening’, like they think we’re doing some PR stunt. We try to please the fans, but you’ll get the odd fool saying we’re speculating or it’s a stunt.
“It’s quite clear now that the facts were what they are. Do you really think I’m going to go on some media platform and announce something that wasn’t done? I pick my words carefully and tell the truth, if I can’t speak the truth I won’t speak at all.”
It meant that the fight was signed and sealed just in time for Fury to take in Joshua’s impressive win at London’s O2 Arena. Sure, Martin fell apart alarmingly quickly, but all the new IBF titlist could do was beat what was in front of him—and he did that in style. What are the chances of Fury-Joshua should both prevail next time out?
“I’ve always said that Joshua is a very good addition to the heavyweight division,” Fury declared. “I wish him all the best on winning the IBF belt and all credit to him. He deserves that credit because he lives in the gym to fulfill the potential in all he does—good things come to good people so he deserved that.
“It’s all about levels, though, and Martin didn’t impress me. He was unbeaten, had a good knockout ratio and looked a good real test when it was matched-up. Looking at it as a realist, he froze when he came out of the corner.
“Joshua was on him too quickly, Martin didn’t know how to respond and it isn’t Joshua’s problem if he froze or had an off night or whatever. Full credit to him, he’s the IBF champion and we’re over the moon for him.”
He added: “To get back to your question, let’s hope that Eddie Hearn means what he says, as he says an awful lot—we’ll have that fight 100% in October or November.”
Hearn has revealed that Joshua is penciled in for a July 9 outing for his first title defence. Some fans and pundits assumed that it was a bit of kidology from Hearn, but Fury told me that Joshua is indeed due to fight on that date and they are not worried about the shows clashing.
“I don’t care to be honest, if people turn up they’ll see Tyson Fury fighting one of the best heavyweights in the world again—a man who went 11-years unbeaten until he met Tyson,” he declared.
“Tyson is having a super fight, Joshua is still in learning fights despite his big following and the IBF belt—he’s not stepped up to world level yet. We’ll know more about the fighter he can be when he meets Tyson at the end of the year, provided Tyson comes through the July date.
“Like I said, this is no criticism of Joshua. I like him because he trains hard and is a likeable guy—I actually think he’s the only one who is real in that camp—but Tyson did it properly so he could learn his job and do damage when the time comes.”
The decision to pencil Joshua in for a July 9 defence meant that Sky were out of the running for Fury-Klitschko II early in the race as they had a fixed date in mind. “I believe Sky were up for the 4th of June, but not up for July 9 because their man Eddie wanted it for Joshua,” revealed Fury.
“We’re not controlled by Sky, if they didn’t want our date or venue then we just moved on to something else. BoxNation are serious people, we have worked together before and we’re happy with them so they came in for the fight and were up for it.
“BoxNation are like us, they mean serious business so I want them to succeed. We’re all happy with this deal, over the moon with Frank Warren and will move forward as a unit: Furys, Mick Hennessy, K2, Frank and BoxNation—we’re all pulling in the same direction.”
Hughie Fury will also appear on the undercard, Peter told me that his son is the next in line for the world crown yet he will not be rushed. They expect him to hit world title maturity some time next year.
“These guys (Tyson and Hughie) learned to fight without an hype machine behind them. Anyone can shout things from the rooftops before they’re ready for a big fight, we’ve not brought Hughie or Tyson through like that—people who do that are the idiots who don’t go anywhere.
“Hughie will be ready for a world title by the back-end of 2017. He’ll be 23, still young but he’ll have been kept active on BoxNation between now and then so that he’s ready for all-comers when the time comes.”
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