John Fury — the enigmatic father of reigning WBC heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury — has challenged former boxing star Carl Froch to a clash at Wembley Stadium.
Fury and Froch’s war of words between one another has been escalating ever since the British former IBF super-middleweight titleholder suggested that ‘The Gypsy King‘ may not be as good as he is often labeled.
“How good is Tyson Fury? What’s he ever done? Who’s he actually beaten? He obviously beat Klitschko in a bit of a stinker,” Froch told LuckyBlock.com. “That was just an awkward, horrible performance where he just got inside Klitschko’s head and messed him up with that jab.
“After the Klitschko fight, Fury had those three big standout fights with Deontay Wilder. But how good is Deontay Wilder now? He looked awful against Joseph Parker. So now you start questioning him. Is Tyson Fury actually what we thought he was or has he been flattered by the lack of opposition?”
Froch echoed similar sentiments after Fury withdrew from his highly anticipated unified heavyweight title clash with Oleksandr Usyk last week. The fight was scheduled to go down on February 17 in London, but a cut sustained over his right eye while sparring forced Fury out of the contest.
Shortly after, it was announced that the long-awaited showdown would be rescheduled for May 18, though Froch is taking that new date with a grain of salt.
“The date they’ve announced is really convenient. Everybody’s upset, infuriated and deflated that this undisputed everywhere title fight’s not happening. So what do they do? They come out with a date of May 18. Take that with a pinch of salt. They’re giving us something to think about. They’re giving us something to talk about and to keep the dream alive and keep all the fans intrigued,” Froch explained to talkSport.
“That date is something that’s been plucked out of the air and I think we’re being paid lip service because you can’t say May 18 because you don’t know what Fury is going to be doing now for the next two months and how that eye’s going to heal. It’s nice that they’ve got a date and they’ve put it in there and they still want it to happen but, to be honest, I don’t get excited when I hear that.”
Froch was also highly critical of Tyson Fury for allowing such a significant cut to occur while doing some heavy sparring two weeks out from the biggest fight of his pro boxing career.
“I don’t think there’s any excuse for him to get cut. It never happened to me,” Froch said via his YouTube channel. “I used to wear a face guard. No elbows can get through so you mitigate getting injured. That’s what you should be doing before a fight of this magnitude – taking massive precautions. I’m blaming his trainer, I’m blaming Tyson himself for not taking that precaution, whether you’re uncomfortable in it or not. He’s got cut in sparring two weeks before the biggest fight of his life. This is the unification, undisputed heavyweight title fight we’ve all been waiting for.”
“At two weeks out he should be keeping his sparring partners at a distance, working on what he needs to work on when he’s fighting Usyk. Of course the guys are going to get close to you during sparring, but from the clips I’ve seen Fury was having a bit of a push around and a move, he was looking sloppy.”
John Fury has heard enough from Carl Froch
Tired of hearing Froch badmouth his eldest son, John Fury sent a message to the ex-boxing star, challenging him to a fight at one of the world’s most famous stadiums.
“Video to Carl The Snake Froch. You’re having plenty to say mate on your little podcast channel. John Fury’s rung the bell for you again, got you plenty of content, plenty of viewing figures that you were after. Listen, your mate George Groves said something very interesting. You and me, Wembley Stadium, 93,000 crowd. I’m up for that my friend. You’ve had plenty to say. I have. I stand by every word that I’ve said. You don’t like me. Let’s see what you can do about it.
“Hater versus Top Father – that’s what we’ll call this. But, it’s got to make business sense. Because it’s a business, let’s not forget that. Get your people to contact me directly… get the contracts drawn up, I will fight you, Wembley Stadium, this year. Don’t worry about that. John Fury will not back out of the fight with you my friend” (h/t GBNews).
It’s certainly not the first time John Fury has called out a former world champion for a fight. Last year, he famously challenged ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson ahead of Tyson Fury’s fight with former UFC heavyweight star Francis Ngannou.