Tyson Fury admits he’d like to see former rival Deontay Wilder retire from boxing.
Fury stopped Wilder in the eleventh round of their breathless trilogy bout last October in Las Vegas, having won their second bout in seven rounds after a controversial split decision draw in their first meeting.
Former WBC heavyweight champion, Wilder who has been out of the ring since his crushing defeat to ‘The Gypsy King’, announced his intentions to return to the sport at the unveiling of his statue in Alabama last month.
“I can’t stop right here,” the 36-year-old said.
“I must continue my journey. I have to, I have to.”
However, Fury who announced his retirement after defending his WBC crown with a sixth round stoppage over Dillian Whyte at Wembley Stadium in April has advised ‘The Bronze Bomber’ to hang up his gloves for good.
“I think he’s a very dangerous man,” Fury told The Unibet Lowdown.
“I think he’ll knock anybody out if he hits them in the face and in 12 rounds, guess what, he’s going to hit them in the face.
“Everybody he ever fought he knocked out, even the one that took him the distance, he knocked him out in the rematch.
“So, I think he’s a very dangerous opponent, but I don’t know what’s left in his tank.
“You don’t have a trilogy with the best fighter on the planet and come out on the other side to tell a great story and go on afterwards and win world titles.
“He has been absolutely destroyed, mentally, physically and emotionally and I’d say he’s a wreck at the moment.
“He’s had a cracked jaw, a cracked skull, he’s been knocked out cold twice.
View this post on Instagram
“It’s a tough comeback for him, but it all depends on what he’s got left.
“I wouldn’t like to see him carrying on. I know he doesn’t need the money, he’s made a lot of money.
“I’d like to see him retire, because whether he wins a few more fights or he goes in there and he’s totally shot and starts losing, it breaks up his legacy.
“At the moment, he’s lost to the best fighter of a generation and there’s no disrespecting that, there’s no shame in that.
“But, to come back and start getting wiped the floor with people, because he’s shot to bits, that would be disgraceful.”
View this post on Instagram
The 33-year-old, unbeaten in 33 professional fights, has reiterated his retirement stance insisting it would take a figure of £500m to tempt him to unify the division with the winner of the upcoming rematch between unified WBA ‘super’, WBO, IBF and IBO champion, Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua, having offered to train the latter.
The Morecambe man has however opened the door to exhibition bouts with the likes of Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis and despite urging Wilder to retire, appeared to jokingly suggest that he could face him again.
“However, if he does want another good hiding,” Fury added.
“Give me a call. Holla at your boy!”
