Fury Set To Walk Away From Boxing

Britain’s heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury says he will retire after the defence of his WBC title against Dillian Whyte in April.

The unbeaten 33-year-old is a two-time world champion, winning 31 of 32 professional fights.

He drew with American Deontay Wilder in the first of their three fights, before winning the second and third bouts.

Asked whether he would call time on his career after fighting Whyte at Wembley Stadium on 23 April, Fury said: “100%.”

Speaking after his news conference to promote his upcoming bout, Fury said: “I’m a two-time undisputed world champion.

“[I have] £150m in the bank and nothing to prove to anybody.”

Fury, who has hinted at walking away from boxing before, was expected to face the winner of Anthony Joshua’s rematch with Ukranian WBA (Super), IBF and WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk later this year, should he beat Whyte.

That potential scenario to unify all the heavyweight belts had kept alive the possibility of a long-awaited fight between Fury and Joshua, after negotiations ended last year.

Fury says compatriot Whyte is terrified after the Londoner missed the pair’s news conference for their fight.

Whyte is the mandatory challenger to Fury’s WBC title and is believed to be in preparation in Portugal.

“He’s definitely shown the white flag in my estimation,” said Fury.

Whyte is only getting 20% of the fight purse and there was speculation he was seeking to renegotiate terms before signing his contract last week.

But Fury’s promoter Frank Warren argued the 33-year-old was getting a career-high pay-day.

Fury added: “He’s given me that much more confidence it’s unbelievable.

“He’s terrified. The way he’s going on about it, saying he doesn’t want to go face-to-face, of course he doesn’t, because he’ll see that fire in my eyes and he’ll think, ‘I’m getting smashed to bits’.

“That’s what it is, it’s fear, it’s terror. It’s all of the above and I don’t blame him for not being here today.”

However, Whyte’s lawyer Jeff Benz says his client was not getting involved in promoting the fight as “we still do not have things resolved”.

“They [Warren’s company Queensberry Promotions] went through two lawyers and brought forward a whole bunch of new things that we hadn’t talked about for the whole week we were negotiating,” Benz told Tidesports source.

“We pretty much said no to most of those last-minute demands but it was quite an unusual experience.

“They won’t tell us the size of the ring, so we don’t know the field of play Dillian will be competing on.

“This is normal stuff and, after all, it’s an athletic contest. They won’t negotiate on officials and Dillian, at this moment, does not have a guarantee for a ticket for his mum.

“He has no guarantee on tickets, credentials or accommodation, and then we had a press release a couple days ago where they used his image without his consent or any input from us.

“This is completely different to anything I have been involved in as a sports lawyer.”

Benz says Whyte may continue to stay on the sidelines with promotion of the fight.

“There was no effort to find a win-win [for both fighters],” he said.

“There was only effort to find a win-lose and that is going to have to change if we are going to get Dillian fully engaged in promoting this thing.”

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