By Terence Dooley
Tyson Fury (26-0, 19 KOs) meets former world title challenger Francesco Pianeta (35-4-1, 21 early) at Windor Park, Belfast live on BT Sports on Saturday night yet the former heavyweight world champion still had some choice words for WBC holder Deontay Wilder, who is expected to be ringside on the night, and unified titlist Anthony Joshua as he continues to stoke the flames early into his long-awaited comeback.
The 30-year-old forced Sefer Seferi to retire after four rounds the Manchester Arena in June, his first fight for over two years, and quickly revealed that promoter Frank Warren had lined up a summer fight date.
Now he is seemingly on course for a clash against Wilder later this year and has vowed to take the WBC title en route to setting up a fight with Joshua in 2019 or beyond.
“Whether I'm ready or not, I'm doing this fight with Wilder for British boxing, to take the shame away from it because we've got one idiot who is chiselled out of stone who is afraid of his own shadow,” he said when spealing to The Telegraph.
“He wouldn't take the fight with Wilder and has made British boxing a laughing stock. If he's a fighting man, he should have taken the fight. He didn't so I have to step in. I'm not afraid to fight any man in any backyard.”
Fury, though, must first get past Pianeta, and is expected to do so with ease, before facing the not inconsiderable task of dethorining Wilder in the USA in the third fight of his comeback.
However, the traveller is convinced that he will light up Vegas by beating his America rival, saying: “I'm going to knock Pianeta out. Then I'm going to go to Las Vegas and I'll spank Wilder all over it. He's a dosser who's never fought anybody.”
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