Notebook: Fury: 'This is the truth, the gospel truth, nothing but the truth — I'm done'

Hearn, Paul make big bet on Taylor-Serrano; Josh Taylor ordered to make another mandatory; Quick hits; Show and tell

Apr 29, 2022

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Leading up to his heavyweight title defense against British countryman Dillian Whyte last Saturday, Tyson Fury said it would be his last fight.

And after Fury knocked the interim titlist and mandatory challenger out with a brutal right uppercut in the sixth round before 94,000 at Wembley Stadium in London, he said again he planned to retire, although he was interested in an exhibition against UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou and a second stint in WWE.

But real boxing matches? He said he was not interested, not even for the undisputed title against the winner of the July rematch between three-belt titlist Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua.

Now, with the fight a few days behind him, Fury is sticking to his guns.

“This is the truth, the gospel truth, nothing but the truth — I'm done," Fury told Piers Morgan on Wednesday on his “Uncensored” show in the United Kingdom. “You know every good dog has his day and like the Roman leader said, there will always be someone else to fight. The fans will always want more. They are always baying for more blood, but at the end of the day I don't have anything more to give. I've given everything I've got. I've been a professional 14 years, I've been boxing over 20 years.

“My time is to go out on a high. I always said that I wanted to walk away on top of the sport, and do it on my terms, and I didn't want to be the person who said, ‘Well, I should have maybe retired two years ago,' or whatever.

"I just wanted to walk out on top, go out with a bang. Nearly 100,000 at Wembley, with a knockout performance. They will not forget ‘The Gypsy King’ in a hurry, and no amount of material assets or money will make me come back out of retirement because I'm very happy.”

Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs), 33, won the lineal title and three of the four major belts in 2015 from Wladimir Klitschko. Fury eventually was stripped of the various organizational titles for declining a mandatory and also due to failed drug tests when he was battling drug and alcohol addiction and dealing with mental health issues. During his comeback he eventually won the WBC title from Deontay Wilder in their rematch and he retained it twice. He defended the lineal title eight times.

“I'm quitting while I'm ahead. I'm undefeated, only the second man in history to retire undefeated heavyweight champion," Fury said, with the other being Rocky Marciano. “When is enough enough? I'm happy, I'm healthy, I've still got my brains, I can still talk. I've got a beautiful wife, I've got six kids, I've got umpteen belts, I've got plenty of money, success, fame, glory. What more am I doing it for?”

Hearn, Paul $1 million bet

During Thursday’s final pre-fight news conference for the women’s super fight between undisputed lightweight champion Katie Taylor and seven-division titlist Amanda Serrano, their promoters raised the stakes of the fight on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, DAZN and PPV.com) at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Jake Paul, Serrano’s promoter, proposed a $500,000 bet on the fight to Taylor promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing.

Hearn’s response: “Maybe we can talk about a million.”

After some back and forth they shook on it with Paul saying that because Serrano is the favorite, he would bet the million, plus give odds to Hearn.

“We’ll get that papered up, because I don’t know about you,” Hearn said.

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Paul later reminded Hearn not to forget about the wager.

“Don’t forget about the bet,” Paul told him near the end of the news conference. “When Amanda wins, I’m giving your million dollars to her. So, I just want to put that out there.”

Serrano (42-1-1, 30 KOs), 33, a southpaw, who is a reigning featherweight titleholder, is already due to earn her first seven-figure purse.

Ireland’s Taylor (20-0, 6 KOs), 35, will be making her 13th title defense, including her sixth of the undisputed crown, and also making her first seven-figure purse.

Josh Taylor mandatories

Josh Taylor, the No. 1 junior welterweight in the world, likely will not be the undisputed champion for much longer.

Taylor (19-0, 13 KOs), 31, of Scotland, unified all four titles by decision over Jose Ramirez last May and then defended them against WBO mandatory challenger Jack Catterall by controversial decision in February. But now he faces two additional mandatory defenses at the same time.

On Thursday, the WBC ordered him to begin negotiations with two-time world title challenger Jose Zepeda (35-2, 27 KOs), a 32-year-old southpaw from La Puente, California. The WBC said if no agreement is reached there will be a purse bid on May 24.

The WBC pointed out that it made the order “as per prior communications and with the agreement which all four presidents (WBC-WBO-IBF-WBA) confirmed in the meeting held in Puerto Rico, the WBC mandatory defense is next, followed by the IBF.”

However, the WBA apparently ignored the agreement and last week held a purse bid for Taylor’s mandatory against Alberto Puello (20-0, 10 KOs), 27, of the Dominican Republic, a former interim titlist positioned as the organization’s mandatory when the WBA terminated all interim belts last summer as it moved to reduce its titles. TGB Promotions, the lone bidder, won promotional rights to Taylor-Puello for $200,000. For that low figure there is no chance the fight will happen because Taylor, who has made seven figures for recent fights, would only get $110,000 (55 percent).

Quick hits

Undisputed women’s lightweight champion Katie Taylor defends he crown against seven-division titlist Amanda Serrano in perhaps the most significant women’s fight in history on Saturday at Madison Square Garden. For the occasion, the WBC has created a trophy belt that will be awarded to the winner along with all the world titles. The belt is called the “Celtic-Boricua Belt” which features the flags and symbols of Taylor’s home country of Ireland and of Puerto Rico, where Brooklyn, New York’s Serrano is originally from. “This unique trophy will be awarded to the winner of the fight, as a special gift and supreme greatness recognition from the world of boxing,” the WBC said.

Legendary former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes is in camp in Las Vegas assisting WBA “regular” heavyweight titlist Trevor Bryan (22-0, 15 KOs), 32, prepare for a mandatory defense against Daniel Dubois (17-1, 16 KOs), 24, of England, scheduled for June 11, and so far Holmes likes what he see. “Trevor Bryan has got himself together,” Holmes said. “He’s kind of quiet and he doesn’t talk a lot. I’m the one with the big mouth. He did a lot of listening and I did the talking. He was willing to learn. All these guys are looking for that big punch for the knockout and the easy way out. You can’t beat them unless you take them out in the water and work them over. The jab did that for me and set up everything else. Bryan is a big guy and he’s got himself together. He is all business. He really impressed me.”

Show and tell

Every big fight deserves an official program to commemorate it. Seidman Productions has produced one for the Oscar Valdez-Shakur Stevenson fight on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. I’ve written stories for the Seidman programs for more than 20 years, including for the one for this junior lightweight unification fight. Of course, I will be adding a few to my collection.

Fury photo: Reuters; Hearn/Paul photo: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing

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