Tyson Fury says he has stopped training and won’t go back into camp until he is given a date for his fight with Anthony Joshua.
Speaking at ringside at Friday night’s MTK Global show, where he was supporting his close friend Isaac Lowe, Fury claimed that he didn’t have any confirmation that the fight was going ahead and that he had stopped training and was drinking ten pints of beer a night.
“I’ve been out of the ring for a bit, so I’m back to square one again, basically,” Fury said. “I’m not training any more. I’ve packed in at the moment. I never stopped training since December 2017 and even after these world title fights, I trained the next day.
“I’m having some time away from the game at the moment because I have been ready to fight since I beat Deontay Wilder last year. So I’ve had no success in getting another fight. It’s down to COVID and a lot of stuff going on. But at the moment I am concentrating on getting from 10 pints of Stella to 12 every day. I could drink 14 pints of beer and still give AJ a hiding.”
He said that, despite all the talk that a fight had been agreed with Joshua, he said he had not been told. He said he spoke to Bob Arum, his US promoter, on Thursday and Robert Davis, his lawyer, on Friday afternoon.
“I think everyone in this building knows more about this fight than me,” Fury said. “Apparently it’s done, it’s signed, we’ve got a date, venue, we know how much we are getting – news to me, I don’t know Jack.
“As far as I am concerned I am not even training any more now. Sugarhill has gone home, he went home in November, Andy Lee has gone home. I’m burnt out. I’ve done too much. I need a rest mentally and physically and emotionally.
“I’ve not made any money in over a year. I have got a lot of people to pay, a lot of overheads, a lot of hands holding out who need feeding. Give the Gypsy King a break, let me fight.
“Straight from the horse’s mouth, I don’t know anything about no fight. Until I get a date and they say ‘you are fighting June 15, Antarctica’. Then I will got back into training camp.
“I only need six or seven weeks’ training for these bums. I don’t need no great sparring partners for a methodical bodybuilding type guy, I just need local binmen and firemen and local strongmen. I am ready to go tonight, I’m in shape fit.”
He claimed he was so desperate for a fight that he even asked Lee Eaton, the promoter of the Bolton show, if he could have a fight on the bill.
“I asked Lee ‘can I do an eight-rounder tonight?’,” he said. “I’d love to fight tonight, no problem, but I can’t, so I am actually jealous that these guys can do six-rounders and be active and get under the lights and get rid of the ring rust.”
Fury said that he was open to fighting Deontay Wilder again and Dillian Whyte.
“I’m 32 years old. I’m on the tail-end of my career, getting too long in the tooth for this game,” he said. “I need to just fight whoever is available out there- Joshua, Wilder, Whyte. Whoever is available to have a dust-up with me. I’m looking for a challenge. I’ve been searching the world for 13 years to find a man who can better me. I just can’t find him.”
Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.
