Despite Tyson Fury’s retirement, many believe, and hope, he will return to the ring to face Anthony Joshua, though there is one former world champion who has other ideas.
Tyson Fury announced his retirement after back-to-back losses to Oleksandr Usyk. ‘The Gypsy King’ maintains he was robbed against the Ukrainian, though fans hope Fury isn’t finished with the sport just yet.
On social media it appears Fury is consistently training, which could indicate a return to the sport, though nothing concrete has been announced yet.
Many hope for the Anthony Joshua fight, which would undoubtedly be one of Britain’s biggest ever fights.
One former champion, however, believes Fury should take an alternate path instead.
George Groves wants Tyson Fury to fight Francis Ngannou in the cage
George Groves, best known for his two fights with Carl Froch, spoke to Action Network on the possibility of Fury returning to the sport.
When asked if the Joshua fight was possible, Groves said: “I think he will come back and fight Anthony Joshua if there are guaranteed purses. If you are going to fight Joshua, then it has to be soon and maybe they will announce that fight straight after Usyk v Dubois and the winner will still dream of becoming world champion again.”
He added, though, that he would rather see Fury do something a bit different: “I would like to see Tyson Fury do something different and get in the cage. I heard rumours of him fighting Francis Ngannou in the cage and that sounds brilliant, I would 100% pay for that.
I’m all over that. He’s a very good athlete who can chop and change, let’s see if he can learn some wrestling or Jujitsu and a bit of defence before putting on some 4oz gloves on and see if he can put Ngannou away.
Ngannou stepped into Fury’s domain and give him a run for his money and should’ve won but Fury got away with it. Let’s see if Fury can return the favour by jumping in the Octagon and have a scrap with Ngannou.”
Fury defeated Ngannou, who is set to return this year, by split decision in their fight, and was dropped in the third round by the MMA champ.
Tyson Fury could join a list of champions who have stepped into other combat sports
If Fury were to move to the cage, he wouldn’t be the first to do so, as many other boxers have switched to other mediums of combat sports.
Jack Cullen, former British super-middleweight champion, turned over to bare-knuckle boxing after losing to Zak Chelli and Luka Plantic. Cullen won his BKFC debut by KO.
Austin Trout, former WBA super-welterweight world champion and former Canelo opponent, has become a BKFC champion since his debut in 2023. Trout has won four BKFC bouts.
Deontay Wilder considered a move to MMA, but has not yet acted on this.