The WBC world heavyweight champion confirmed that the UFC has sent him an offer to fight the Heavyweight Champion, Jon Jones.
During a Twitter spaces session via a Twitter Spaces stream, Fury revealed that discussions had taken place previously to fight Francis Ngannou in a hybrid bout. Said discussions did not come to fruition; however, a fight with Jon Jones has entered the horizon.
The Gypsy King revealed he received an offer from the UFC yesterday and didn’t rule the option out. He said there were plenty of options out there for him and mentioned the difficulty he was having in securing an opponent in boxing. He claimed to have called out the majority, if not all, of the top fifteen boxers in the heavyweight rankings and said nobody wants to fight him.
The ruleset regarding a ‘hybrid fight’ for a bout between Fury and Jones is still up in the air. Fury has said he was willing to have a boxing match inside the UFC octagon wearing the smaller, open-fingered gloves, which would take him slightly out of his comfort zone. Another option is to allow kicks but ban takedowns.
Fury’s last fight was in December 2022 against Derek Chisora at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in the UK, which drew criticism from boxing fans due to the perceived one-sided nature of the bout. Fury had already fought and defeated Chisora eleven years prior, after which Fury remained unbeaten, winning multiple world titles in the process. The fight was deemed unnecessary and a foregone conclusion to many experts.
Earlier this year, Fury was due to fight Oleksandr Usyk, however negotiations broke down after Usyk’s promoter claimed that Fury made unrealistic demands over a rematch clause, something which Fury denies. Fury vs Usyk would have been a heavyweight unification bout with the former holding the WBC title and Usyk holding the other three (IBF, IBO and WBO) belts. Fury relinquished these three titles when he ‘retired’ following his victory against Wladimir Klitschko in 2015. The victory over the Ukrainian in Düsseldorf fulfilled a lifelong dream for Fury in becoming the heavyweight champion and dethroning the long-reigning Klitschko.
After the victory, Fury went into a deep depression and even had suicidal tendencies, ballooning to around 400lbs before making a remarkable comeback to draw with and defeating Deontay Wilder to regain the WBC title. It was a real-life ‘Rocky’ story that significantly raised mental health awareness, particularly in men. Fury is committed to helping as many men as possible overcome their dark times.
As with all sports, the fans want to see the best fight the best, and that is a criticism that has been leveled at boxing over the years. Fury’s comments regarding a potential bout with Jon Jones may just be a tactic to push his promoter into organizing a fight for him due to The Gypsy King becoming impatient sitting on the sidelines. Fury may also be genuine in wanting to fight Jones, but it’s worth considering that the Brit has a history of making statements about his future bouts that do not come to fruition. It may say more about the state of boxing than it does Tyson Fury’s intentions, as the failure of top boxers to compete against each other in their prime is not uncommon.
Boxing fans are becoming tired of hearing about the fight negotiations on social media as so many of them fail to materialize; boxing has become a little like the movie ‘Groundhog Day’ in that sense. When fights do eventually happen, it is often when the athletes are past their prime, as was the case with Mayweather and Pacquiao, Kell Brook vs. Amir Khan, and potentially even Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.
On the flip side, we fight fans have short memories, and if a fight between Tyson Fury and the two-weight UFC champion Jon Jones were to be confirmed, the mega fight have the potential to be one of the biggest pay-per-view events of all time. As with all potential mega-fight rumors, we must wait and see (and hope.)
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