Tyson Fury says the Anthony Joshua fight on December 11 will not be his goodbye. Speaking to IFL TV ahead of their meeting at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, the 38-year-old said he intends to keep fighting, and he attached a number to it that would make most heavyweights his age reach for an ice bath.
“I’m going to continue. I’ve got two fights left on my contract,” Fury said. “I’ll finish the contract off and then probably sign another 10-fight deal. Who knows? If the money’s right I’ll sign another 10 fights, but they’ve got to be quick because I’m getting older.”
That works out to Joshua, one more bout to close out the current deal, and then possibly 10 after that. Counting it out, that is 12 fights beyond Cardiff if you take him at his word.
Few people do. Fury announced his retirement last year after his losses to Oleksandr Usyk, and the reaction was mostly a shrug, because he has walked away and walked back enough times that boxing fans now treat his farewells as intermissions. Bloody Elbow, which reported the comments, pointed out that since Fury ended his three-year layoff in 2018 he has averaged roughly two fights a year. At that pace, 12 more would carry him to around age 44. That’s a long stretch, though nobody can call it impossible for a man who has already made a career out of coming back.
First comes Joshua, the fight British boxing has spent years trying to make. The two heavyweights went through rounds of negotiations and stalled talks before this date finally landed, and the money around it is enormous. Dana White has said only three matches in history will have a bigger gate than Fury vs. Joshua. Joshua turns up as the 37-year-old in the matchup, which means the fight once sold as the future of the division now arrives with two men closer to the end than the beginning.
Beyond Cardiff, the pool of opponents thins out quickly. Daniel Dubois gave himself a case earlier this month with an emphatic win over Fabio Wardley, and he would be a natural name if Fury gets past Joshua. Outside of that, there aren’t many fights left for Fury that carry real weight. The general consensus among fans, per Bloody Elbow, is that he will retire after Joshua no matter what he says now.
My take: the most honest words in that whole quote are “I’m getting older.” The two fights on his contract are real paper with real signatures. The 10-fight deal is a man in fight week talking himself into the idea that the next one will never be the last one, which is how a lot of great fighters talk until the day they stop. I’d bet on the contract and treat everything after it as a wish. Fury has nothing left to prove to anyone after Usyk except against Joshua, and the only fight that matters is the one in Cardiff on December 11.
