TYSON FURY insists he is quitting boxing after Saturday’s Dillian Whyte showdown to avoid the mistake of old foe Wladimir Klitschko.
The Gypsy King pulled off a masterstroke when he went to Germany in 2015 to dethrone Ukraine’s 10-year world champion, who was 39 at the time.
Tyson Fury is adamant he will retire after facing Dillian Whyte at Wembley on SaturdayCredit: GettyFe says he does not want to make the same mistake as Wladimir Klitschko, the man he beat in 2015Credit: Getty
The 6ft 9in WBC heavyweight champ is now almost 34, with miles on the clock, six kids at home and millions in the bank.
So he has vowed to get out while the going is still good, instead of trying to fight off the next generation of monsters, like Klitschko who was 41 when Anthony Joshua finally retired him in 2017.
He said: “I’m getting too old for this, I’m too long in the tooth for this.
“I’m 34 this year. I’ve had everything to deal with, weight loss, alcohol problems, drug problems. I’m probably about 60 when it comes to boxing years.
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“I’m the same now and I’m not far off the same age Wladimir was when I beat him.
“The mistake Wladimir made was he wanted to take on the next era of champions and it didn’t work out for him.
“They all go on too long, because they can’t get away from it because they love it too much. It’s a way of life, it’s all you know.”
With height, reach, weight and form advantages in Fury’s favour, the bookies have Whyte as the wide underdog.
And Fury thinks the freakish recovery powers he showed by climbing off the canvas two times in both the first and third Deontay Wilder spectacles gives him an extra X-Factor that nobody can quantify.
He explained: “When you get knocked out by a man, who usually get knocked out, you don’t get back up to knock him out.
“Round four of the second fight was an unusual place for me, to get knocked down twice in one round. But I got back up and rallied to end his dreams in round 11.
“I believe there’s never been a man born who can recover the way I can recover. It’s a God-given talent.”
Fury has floored the idea that this Wembley showdown is a semi-final for the chance to fight the winner of Oleksandr Usyk’s July-targeted rematch with Anthony Joshua, for the WBA, IBF and WBO and undisputed status.
AJ, he insists after two career defeats, is a busted flush who will lose again to the Ukraine southpaw.
And he will not hang about to face the former undisputed cruiserweight king he has been less than impressed with.
He even managed a dig at AJ in his daming appraisal of Usyk’s talent, saying: “I’ll give him a hiding, I’ll bust him.
“I thought he lost to Derek Chisora to be fair, he couldn’t even beat Del convincingly.
“He looked like a world champion compared to the body builder and, if he fights me, I’ll show you how great I am. And I don’t have to be in no great shape to do it.
“He’s no Evander Holyfield and we all know what happened to him when he stepped up against big men and lost to Lennox Lewis and Riddick Bowe.
“A little man can’t beat a big man unless he’s useless or has a bad night. That’s a fact.”
