In what is perhaps considered a surprising move, British heavyweight prospect Tyson Fury has vacated his British and Commonwealth championship, ending hopes of a showdown with hard hitting David Price. The 6’9 Fury is now following the road to the heavyweight championship while Price will probably pursue the vacant British and Commonwealth belts.
Fury claimed that Price, from Liverpool, turned down an offer of £100,000 to fight him earlier this week for a showdown that would have been televised on channel 5.
“It’s been an honour to have won and held both the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles, but as I’m now currently No 7 in the world it’s time to move on. If Price really believed he could beat me the smart move in my opinion would have been to take the great pay day that was offered by my promoter to appear on terrestrial TV. I’m really excited about my future plans as I’m doing things differently and currently training like a Trojan in pursuit of becoming heavyweight champion of the world,” Fury said.
Promoter, Mick Hennessy stated, “We have a great schedule in place for Tyson on Channel 5 and I’m not prepared to have that affected by other promoters, purse bids and titles. Fury v Price was a quality fight and in my opinion it should go out to the widest possible audience. That’s why I offered £100,000, which unfortunately was rejected by his promoter Frank Maloney on Monday. Tyson’s next steps and further information will be announced over the next few days.”
Despite the claims made by both parties, the one thing that is certain is that boxing has lost out once again in hoping to stage a potentially great fight that would have captured the public’s imagination, and that means the casual and hardcore fans of the sport. It seems that promoters are in constant fear that their fighter’s stock would drop so considerably if they received a loss on their records when that could be far from the truth. Notice that I said could as it all depends on the manner of the defeat, however, it all depends how a fighter comes back from it that counts, and that is something that the public take most notice of.
Of course, rankings are also important to them, and a drop would mean delays in huge pay days should a fighter receive a loss on their record, both for the boxer himself and the promoter. And in this day and age of boxing, it is the $$$/£££ that counts the most over what the public want rather than what we are actually being fed.
