Tyson Fury thinks Deontay Wilder should hang up his gloves. The heavyweight champion shared his opinion during a recent podcast interview.
Fury and Wilder have a long history. They've fought three times, with their first match ending in a controversial draw in 2018. Many felt Fury should've won, despite being knocked down twice. Fury had just come back from a three-year break from boxing.
In their second fight, Fury switched up his strategy. He got more aggressive and stopped Wilder in the seventh round. Their third and final bout was a real battle. Fury had to fight through some tough moments before knocking Wilder out in the 11th round.
Since then, Wilder's career has taken a downturn. He won a comeback fight against Robert Helenius, but then lost to Joseph Parker on points and got knocked out by Zhilei Zhang. These performances have led some to call for his retirement.
Fury shared his thoughts on the Pound 4 Pound podcast:
"Being truthful, I'd like to see poor old Deontay retire from boxing. Obviously he lost the three fights to me. We took a lot of years off of each other's lives."
Fury explained how their fights have taken a toll:
"That war that ended in the 11th round by knockout, that takes a lot out your tank and you don't recover from fights like that. Between me and Wilder in our trilogy there were ten knockdowns. It takes a lot out of a fighter."
He also commented on Wilder's recent performances:
"Even when he's come back and had a couple of fights since against Joseph Parker and Zhilei Zhang, he's only a shadow of his former glory. The only thing left of Deontay is his name. And that's it. So I'd like to see him retire for sure before he does damage to himself."
Despite Fury's advice, Wilder has said he'll keep fighting. He had a tune-up fight fall through and hasn't announced his next move yet. There's talk of a possible fight with Francis Ngannou, the former UFC star who once fought Fury.
As for Fury, he's retired after losing to Oleksandr Usyk for the second time. He turned down a big-money fight with Anthony Joshua. But many think he'll come back to boxing soon.
