TYSON FURY claims he is more motivated by money than his boxing legacy, saying: “I wasn’t born in a Christmas cracker.”
The Gypsy King has no intention of being a cheap plaything in the heavyweight division as he prepares for his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.
And he is still fuming that Anthony Joshua cost him a fortune with his September slaughter at the hands of Daniel Dubois.
He said: “I’m only doing it for the money, obviously. More generational wealth.
“All prize fighters, if they tell the truth, do it for the money, don’t they? Who here is not doing it for the money?
“I don’t want to work for f*** all. I want as much as I can get. I want the easiest fights possible for the largest amounts of money possible. I wasn’t born in a Christmas cracker.”
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A Saudi Arabia-written script had AJ winning his old IBF heavyweight world title back from his former Team GB understudy Dubois, with the Gypsy King watching from ringside and ready to pounce.
No matter how Fury did in his rematch with Usyk, the biggest fight in British boxing history — and likely a double-header worth half-a-billion pounds — was in the bank.
But when AJ, 35, was dropped in the very first round by Dynamite Dan — and ironed out brutally in the fifth — Fury leapt out of his VIP seat and roared: “That’s just cost me 150 million, the silly c”.
Joshua has since rejected the instant rematch and is now recovering and however Fury does in his Saturday rerun with the 38-year-old Ukrainian, the battle lines are drawn for 2025.
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But the cash-crazed giant is still seething that Joshua’s first brutal KO defeat has hit him in the pocket.
Fury, 36, said about his X-rated review of the Wembley demolition: “Yeah, I meant that. Of course I did.
“We would have had a two-fight deal lined up for a s-tonne of money.
“Unfortunately, doors open, doors close. If you’ve been knocked out twice or whatever, four, five times, or six or seven? What does it matter? It’s still a big fight.”
Once the fanfare kicks off, Tyson’s wild dad John gets involved and brilliant old tales of their 2010 sparring session with a Rolex at stake are retold — it will be a huge money fight.
But another Usyk masterclass on Saturday would mean their combined recent record will be 0-3 — and people outside the UK will see the clash as a showbiz fight between two spent forces — for dosh.
But Fury’s story has not changed — he does not care about records or belts or legacies.
Cash is king — and he will fight a fellow British icon in the desert or an MMA bloke in the snow for more of it.
He said: “If he said to me, ‘right, you can fight AJ for 50 quid or you can fight Jon Jones in Antarctica for 1,050 quid’ — where am I going to go?
“I’m going to go for the money obviously because I’m a prize fighter.”
But even though he is a heavyweight boxing historian he couldn’t care less about his standing among the icons, just that his generational wealth must outlast his lifetime.
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The father-of-seven said: “Legacy is my kids, isn’t it?
“One thing I do care about is my family, my kids That’s it.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
