Tyson Fury’s dad has reacted to the cancellation of his son’s mega-fight with Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia.
The Gipsy King was just a step away from the undisputed clash with Joshua on August 14. But the deal could not withstand a last minute push as arbitration ordered that a rematch between him and Deontay Wilder be staged.
The decision of course does not sit well with Tyson’s dad who believes his son has allowed ‘yes men’ in his camp to lead him astray and convince him to fight Wilder.
He told BT Sport: “While I’m alive and fit and able I want to do the best for Tyson, but he is obviously in a different league now, he has 20,000 yes men around him.
“This is what happens when you get to the top, he’s got a lot of leeches and hangers-on out there and you can see what’s happening in America with him, that’s appalling work isn’t it?
“It’s diabolical, you’re geared up to fight one man and at the eleventh hour [it gets taken away], and within 24 hours it’s all sorted and you’re signing a contract [to fight someone else] in the hall of a boxing venue.
‘Big John’ believes the fight is not the right one to make right now, considering his son has already beaten Wilder and drawn with him.
“It’s a mistake,” Fury continued. “We can blame his team can’t we, nobody else, anything rushed is no good and that’s been rushed.
“I want him to fight AJ, there’s no interest in fighting Wilder, so why is he fighting Wilder? I told him in a phone conversation that he should chuck the belt in the bin, let them have it.
“He should come back and fight AJ on August 14 as was planned, but who am I? I’m nobody unfortunately; a voice that only a certain amount of people hear.
“I don’t drive a Rolls Royce or live in a castle so it falls on deaf ears doesn’t it?”
In the meantime, Joshua will likely defend his heavyweight belts against mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk, the 18-0 former cruiserweight from the Ukraine and some quotas have already cast doubts over the possibility that the Joshua-Fury unification fight could still happen.
