We might have just witnessed Tyson Fury’s last professional boxing event.
Fury outshined in a match against Dillian Whyte, with Fury being his competitor in five full rounds before a sixth-round TKO, CBS Sports reports. Now, Fury’s sights are on retirement.
“You know, I promised my lovely wife that after the Wilder 3 fight, that would be it and I meant it,” he told the outlet. “But I got offered to fight at Wembley at home and I believed I deserved and owed it [to the fans]. Now it’s all done. I have to be a man of my word and I think this is it. This might be the final curtain of the Gypsy King.”
While he had planned to retire after going up against Deontay Wilder in a trilogy, he felt the urge to fight in his home country at Wembley Stadium. He teased the same before, back in March. “I’m gonna buy a massive yacht abroad. I’m retiring! I’m out,” he said at the time.
But if he calls it quits now, then he would leave unbeaten, with a 32-0-1 record. As one of the best active heavyweight boxers, Fury has won The Ring, WBC, WBA (Super), IBC, WBO, and IBO titles as a pro boxer over 14 years, even when he took a two-and-a-half-year-long hiatus. During that time, he evened the score agains Wilder when the pair had a split draw, ultimately beating Wilder in two successive matches.
Still, it seems that Fury has some other tricks up his sleeve. Fury and UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou have been in talks about a match between each other with hybrid rules, like fighting with MMA gloves in a ring.
“This is going to be a very special fight like never before seen in the history of our sport. We’re not talking [about] two light guys, 140 pounds,” Fury said. “It’s going to be an explosive fight when it happens.”
"Definitely sometime next year. 2023. That fight will happen!"