WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury 31-0-1 (22) has admitted there is a cloud over his career as he closes in on his last fight for Top Rank and ESPN.
The 33-year-old Brit is fresh off his gruelling 11th round knockout victory over old foe Deontay Wilder 42-2-1 (41) at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada earlier this month.
Fury had the 35-year-old American on the deck in in the third and 10th rounds but had to peel himself off the canvas twice in the fourth round before scoring a spectacular knockout in the penultimate round.
The scores at the time of the stoppage were 94-92, 95-91 and 95-92, all for Fury.
Fury now hold two knockout wins over Wilder following his seventh-round stoppage of the then-WBC champion in February last year.
Their first fight in December 2018 ended in a controversial draw after Wilder scored two late knockdowns to retain his title.
The trilogy fight came about when an independent arbitrator ruled the Fury was contractually obliged to face Wilder for a third time.
It put paid to plans Fury had to face then-WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua 24-2 (22) in the northern summer.
Joshua went on to lose his world titles to Ukrainian southpaw and former undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk 19-0 (13) on points later last month.
With Joshua heading into an immediate rematch with Usyk next year, Fury will likely be ordered by the WBC to face Dillian Whyte 28-2 (19) who is the sanctioning body’s interim champion providing Whyte gets past Fury victim Otto Wallin 22-1 (14) at the O2 Arena in London on October 30.
That fight would be the last on Fury’s promotional contract with Top Rank and broadcaster ESPN.
This week Fury once again hinted that retirement could be right around the corner.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Fury told The Telegraph. “I’ve got one fight left on my contract with Top Rank and ESPN and we’ll see what that is.
“But I’m not thinking about boxing right now. I don’t know how many fights I’ve got left. I don’t know if I need to fight anymore. I don’t know what the future holds.
“I am motivated to get up in the morning, do a little bit of training and enjoy my day. I don’t have any goals in boxing, I have done everything and won everything, the only one to do it in my era.
“I will always have been the WBC, WBA, WBO, IBF, Ring magazine champion, that will not evaporate in history, but once it is done, it is done and you cannot get it back.
“Once you are done, it doesn’t matter how many belts you have, who you beat, what your record is. You are just another bare bum in the shower and I have always had that opinion.”
