Former super-middleweight world champion Carl Froch has not hide his frustration regarding the current state of play in the heavyweight division. Often classed as the glamour division, the respective world titles have yet to be contested in this calendar year despite many false dawns of possible headline fights, most prominently between unified world champion Oleksandr Usyk & WBC world title holder Tyson Fury.
Talks for a proposed April 29th fight collapsed due to a failure to agree on financial terms for a proposed rematch if applicable. However, Fury was not accommodating towards Usyk despite the “Gypsy King” insisting that he receives 70% of the purse for any initial encounter.
Fury (33-0-1) is yet to fight this year following his routine and comprehensive knockout victory over Derek Chisora in December 2022. Meanwhile, divisional rival and unified champion Usyk (20-0), is set to defend his unified (WBA, WBO, IBF & IBO) world titles on the 26th of August in Poland against his mandatory challenger, Daniel Dubois (19-1).
Froch, a one-time promotional stablemate of Fury, believes that Fury already has one eye on retirement despite Fury often reversing the decision to retire within days or even hours when he has announced retirement previously.
Speaking to Betfred, Froch believes that Fury is already mulling over retirement. At the same time, fans are simply getting bored of the heavyweight division due to a lack of fights between the big names in the heavyweight division.
“I think Tyson Fury has one eye on retirement. I think he’s had enough. He’s a big lad that’s got a bit of fat around him, and everybody knows that he’s a bit out of shape in between fights. He then gets himself down to a reasonable weight, and he really is a formidable force at heavyweight as he’s six foot nine, he’s big, he moves quick, he’s got light feet, and I believe he can mix with any fighter from any era. He’d have lasted in the 80’s and the 90’s against some of the best old school fighters such as Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield,” Froch told Betfred.
“However, they’re not fighting, it’s frustrating and the boxing fans are getting bored of it. In mixed martial arts they all fight each other because of the way it’s structured. In football, every team plays each other. In boxing, you have Tyson Fury shouting all the odds and fights aren’t happening. I don’t even believe that Anthony Joshua is interested in fighting and he’s actually said that himself, he’s doing it for the money now. If £100 million isn’t enough, then I don’t know when he’s going to stop. It’s a frustrating time to be a boxing fan.
“People blame it on the promoters, blame it on the television networks, but if the fighters want to fight, then the fight can be made.”
