Fury says he’ll retire from boxing if he loses to Klitschko

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Tyson FuryWBO International heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (24-0, 18 KO’s) will be in the fight of his life when he faces Wladimir Klitschko (64-3, 53 KO’s) for the Ukrainian’s mass collection of heavyweight titles on Saturday, October 24 from the ESPRIT Arena in Germany.

Klitschko holds the WBO World, WBA Super World, IBF World, and the IBO World titles.

The 6’6” Klitschko hasn’t lost since suffering a fifth-round TKO loss to Lamon Brewster in 2004, and this fight will be one of those rare occasions when his adversary across the ring has not only a height advantage, but a reach advantage as well.

However, size doesn’t mean everything in boxing. Klitschko fought Mariusz Wach in 2012, a Polish fighter who had an inch and a half height advantage, but lost every round in a unanimous decision rout.

Adding insult to injury, Wach tested positive for steroids.

Tyson Fury has reportedly dropped 35 pounds as of July 7th to be in better conditioning for this fight, and for good reason. Fury is a solid boxer, and has a strong right hand, but has been criticized for not coming into his fights in the best condition.

Not only that, but Fury tweeted on Tuesday that he would retire if Klitschko comes out victorious on October 24th.

“If I can’t beat Wladimir, who is old in boxing terms at 39, I won’t carry on, as I won’t be as good as I thought, bum city, Word!!,” Fury said on Twitter.

I hate to break this so bluntly, but as former light-heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver stated, Fury has no chance in hell in beating Klitschko.

On the other hand, I don’t think Fury will stand by his statement.

As long as he hangs in there and gives Klitschko a good, competitive fight, I think he’ll stay in the sport. Perhaps he will be inspired even more to get in the best condition for every fight to reach his dream: to win the World heavyweight title.

Because let’s face it, Fury hasn’t faced a legitimate contender. While Christian Hammer has the name of a boxer, he doesn’t have the talent, or the marketability that a legitimate contender would need to have. Keep in mind, Fury also threatened to retire if he lost to Hammer.

Look at Bryant Jennings. Who thought Jennings would fight the way he did against Klitschko? I certainly didn’t. He fought a great fight, especially for a guy who hasn’t been fighting for very long.

Now, imagine if Jennings had an amateur career or more professional experience, it could have been a different fight that we saw in April.

Fury needs to quit this retirement talk and focus on doing well. This is a tremendous opportunity. By making such a statement, it could be a sign that he doesn’t care. That’s like saying, ‘Well, if I lose, I obviously stink, and I don’t want to fight anymore.’

If that’s your mentality coming into the fight of your life, like Floyd Sr. told his son about taking easy fights to finish his legendary career, why not retire now?

Klitschko can be beaten; it’s been done three times. But as we’ve seen in the past, Fury has the tendency to let his right hand down and get caught with big right hands. And, that right hand from Klitschko is a monster.

We’ll see if Fury can still hack it on October 24th.