Currently, there is debate about Tyson Fury’s legacy in boxing. Being in the sport’s most beloved weight class, the Heavyweight division, it is difficult to easily include him in the list of the best ever. However, a fight that would have brought him closer to the best of all time was on the verge of happening, but the conflict between Russia and Ukraine stopped everything.
The Gypsy King is currently embroiled in controversy. After defeating Dillian Whyte by knockout last April, he reaffirmed what he had been saying since the promotion of the fight: he is retiring from boxing, right at the top of it, as the world champion of the most traditional body, the WBC.
This decision by Tyson Fury dashed the hopes of many boxing fans who were already savoring a unification bout, to become the Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion between Fury and the winner of the clash between Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua in which the other three belts of the division are at stake.
Russia-Ukraine conflict blow to Tyson Fury
In November 2015, one of the biggest upsets of the year occurred in Germany, when after 12 rounds, Tyson Fury defeated Wladimir Klitschko, the legendary Ukrainian world champion, by unanimous decision to strip him of all his belts (WBA, WBO, IBF). A rematch was a natural but the British left boxing for almost three years due to mental problems and substance abuse. The Ukrainian retired in 2017 after losing by TKO to Anthony Joshua.
A few years after retiring, Klitschko had an illusion: to become the oldest heavyweight champion of the world, a record that belongs to the legendary George Foreman, who won the WBA and IBF belts in 1994 at the age of 45. Wladimir wanted to challenge Fury, but just at that moment, everything changed because of the conflict that his country is currently suffering.
“I had a dream to become the oldest heavyweight champion of the world … But we were talking about something that was happening before and now there’s a big question mark. I was thinking I should just text Tyson Fury and tweet, ‘Last dance?’ He wants to retire. We were supposed to have this rematch and that’s what I was thinking about it. You know, I didn’t do it because my mind was in a totally different world” stated Klitschko toPiers Morgan Uncensored on TalkTV.
Wladimir Klitschko, Former World Heavyweight Champion. (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
