LONDON — Heavyweight Tyson Fury declared he’s retired from boxing in a brief social media post.
The former heavyweight champion, 36, claims he’s calling it quits for the fourth time. The UK athlete suffered a second consecutive defeat last month to Oleksandr Usyk.
“Hi everybody, I’m going to make this short and sweet. I’d like to announce my retirement from boxing,” Fury said in a video shared via Instagram according to Reuters.
In May 2024, Usyk handed Fury his first career loss by split decision to spoil a career 34-0-1 record. Usyk won the rematch in December.
By claiming a unanimous decision, Usyk retained the WBA, WBO and WBC heavyweight championships in the fight held in Saudi Arabia.
Fury retired briefly in 2013, 2017 and 2022. Most recently, he defeated Dillian Whyte via sixth round technical knockout in April 2022 and declared it was his final bout.
But he returned to the ring in October 2023 to defeat Derek Chisora in a trilogy fight that was stopped late in the 10th round.
Fury is still aggrieved by the result of his rematch with Usyk last month, as all three judges scored the fight in favour of the Ukrainian by identical margins of 116-112. “I think he got a Christmas gift from those judges,” Fury said of Usyk.
“It’s been a blast and I’ve loved every single minute of it. I’m going to end with this, Dick Turpin wore a mask. God bless everybody, I’ll see you on the other side,” Fury added.
Frank Warren, Fury’s promoter, admitted to the Guardian that he had not been expecting the announcement. “We have to respect Tyson for all he has done in boxing, and for his decision,” Warren said.
“But it’s also important to remember that Tyson deals with his bipolar. He has done incredibly well over the years, coping with it, but the way he feels might be different to the way he feels a few months from now.”
Eddie Hearn, who promotes Anthony Joshua, will be hoping that Fury makes another familiar U-turn and reverses his decision.
Hearn has been leading calls for Fury to fight Joshua – who this past weekend had also expressed his enthusiasm for the all-British heavyweight bout which has been discussed for so many years without coming to fruition.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever seen Joshua really call him out,” Hearn said. “So does Fury want that pressure to keep mounting on him or does he want to draw a line under it?
“I just don’t know if Tyson Fury is ready yet to live the life without boxing and without competition and confrontation. I really don’t know the guy but maybe the last fight and last camp was horrible for him and he didn’t enjoy it.
Callum Simpson defended his British and Commonwealth super-middleweight titles with a second-round stoppage of Steed Woodall in Sheffield.
Early in the second round, Simpson sent his opponent to the canvas and although Woodall got to his feet, the referee stopped the fight soon after with the challenger caught on the ropes.
“I was expecting a much harder fight,” he said of the victory. “I’ve trained hard, prepared really well, and come up with some clean shots. The referee saved him, I think. He was only one more shot from going down again.”
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