By Tyson Fury’s standards it was a sedate affair. There was no playing for laughs by dressing as Batman or exposing a belly flopping apologetically over his belt, as he did for his fight against Wladimir Klitschko. Instead, the former WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight champion used the final press conference before his comeback to suggest something far more intriguing – that a world belt could be back around his waist far sooner than anticipated.
Given Fury has not fought since bamboozling Klitschko in November 2015, most expected him to ease his way back. But his promoter, Frank Warren, is hoping the WBA champion Manuel Charr will be at ringside for Fury’s bout against Sefer Seferi in Manchester on Saturday night – opening the way for negotiations for a fight by the end of the year.
“Seferi went 10 rounds with Charr, who is now the WBA regular heavyweight champion,” Warren said. “If Tyson stops the guy – and I think he will – that will be better than that champion has done and we hope he will be there on Saturday night.”
Fury, meanwhile, did not discount the possibility of meeting Charr next and notably built the Lebanese fighter as a worthwhile champion, even though he holds the WBA regular belt rather than the “Super” version worn by Anthony Joshua. “People keep going on about this regular belt, but Charr is a bona fide heavyweight champion,” Fury said. “When [Alexander] Povetkin had it he was the world champion and Russia had its first world heavyweight champion. When David Haye had it it was a world title. But since poor old Manuel Charr’s had it, it’s a piece of shit.
“That’s everyone’s opinion. But as far as I’m concerned the WBA Super title is a paper title made up in 2011 for Wladimir.”
Yet with his very next breath Fury claimed that if he did win the belt against Charr he would immediately relinquish it. “If I win a world title before the end of the year, I’ll be a two‑time world heavyweight champion and then I’ll vacate it,” he said. “Then I’ll win it and become a three‑time champion and then vacate them again and win them back again, just to prove I can become a four-time world heavyweight champion and better than anyone before.”
Since Fury’s fight he has struggled with his mental health, blown up to 28 stone and tested positive for cocaine as well as the performance‑enhancing drug nandrolone, for which he accepted a backdated two-year ban last December. Fury refused to address those problems directly, instead insisting: “I am not here to dwell on the past, that is behind me and I am here to move on.”
He promised, though, that he was “sharper than ever” after losing eight stone, and said facing Joshua or the WBC champion Deontay Wilder held no fears.
“I could fight anybody in the world on Saturday night,” Fury said. “I wouldn’t be boxing Seferi if I didn’t think I could go out on the same night and fight Joshua. I’m never going to be a show dog, I’m a proper fighting man, a tough battle-hardened veteran. I’m more experienced than any of these fighters. I haven’t studied anyone because they’re all one-trick ponies, coming forward, looking for one big punch. Unfortunately that doesn’t work with me. You’ve got to have more than that.”
However, Fury denied he would have it all his own way against the Albanian Seferi, who has won 23 of his 24 fights, even though most have been at cruiserweight. “I could have picked someone a lot easier. But I need plenty of rounds. I have been out nearly a thousand days. I know he is tough, has a lion’s heart and will come to win.”
Fury, who turns 30 in August, also dismissed suggestions there might be any nerves on his comeback in front of his home crowd in Manchester. “Not at all. I feel like I have been a goldfish trapped in a tank and now I am being released back into the river where I belong.”
Fury knows Seferi is a minnow by heavyweight standards and that far more dangerous sharks lie in wait. But every iota of his body language suggested he fully believes he can not only swim with them but toy with them, too.
