Tyson Fury has accused one of boxing’s governing bodies of ‘being racist towards Travellers’, warning he will burn their world title belt if he ever gets his hands on it again.
‘The Gypsy King’ suffered the sole defeat of his career against Oleksandr Usyk in May, losing his WBC championship as the Ukrainian walked away with all four of heavyweight boxing’s major world titles.
A month later, Usyk vacated the same IBF [International Boxing Federation] belt he successfully defended that night. It is now in the possession of Daniel Dubois, who made a successful first defence by demolishing Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium last month.
In the aftermath of his defeat to Usyk meanwhile, Fury dropped out of the IBF rankings. Not by a couple of places, but out of their top 15 altogether with Derek Chisora, Otto Wallin and Guido Vianello among some of the names placed ahead of him.
Should Fury avenge his defeat against Usyk, an all-British showdown against Dubois could become a compelling possibility in 2025. But the former world champion, who is immensely proud of his Traveller heritage and traditions, has insisted he will never fight for an IBF title again in his career.
‘I’ll beat Daniel Dubois, but I tell you what, I won’t be boxing him for his [IBF] belt,’ Fury told IFL TV. ‘I’d rather box him for the British title than the IBF.
‘I don’t want anything to do with it, you couldn’t give it to me as a present. I’d probably get back home and burn it and put it on YouTube because that’s how much it means to me.
‘They are biased, they are a biased company, who don’t like ‘The Gypsy King’ for whatever reason. They must be racist towards travellers or something, I’m not sure. Because it doesn’t add up.
‘I’ve just lost a split decision to someone who people say is the pound-for-pound best in the world [in Usyk]. But I’m not in the top 15 of their ratings and I’ve just boxed for their belt?
‘If they are not biased, and they do like me, why don’t they come out and say why I’m not in their ratings?
‘It’s very odd. I will never give them an opportunity again and I would advise everyone to never fight for their belt again, it’s s**t.’
This is not Fury’s first run in with the IBF. In November 2015, Fury was crowned world champion for the first time, beating Wladimir Klitschko to win the IBF, WBO and WBA titles. But less than two weeks later, the Briton was stripped of that IBF title.
On that occasion, Fury opted to take a rematch against Klitschko rather than fight the governing body’s mandatory challenger Vyacheslav Glazkov next.