Tyson Fury sits down with Ring Magazine to discuss his big upcoming showdown with Anthony Joshua, which he believes will come to a conclusive ending early on as he doesn’t believe AJ has what it takes to stand up to him over the distance. Here’s some of what Fury had to say below.
Fury on assessing AJ’s performance against Prenga
“I could sit here and slag him off but it’s not going to do me any favors. Being honest with you, it’s heavyweight boxing. You can get knocked out anytime by anybody and all these so-called warm up fights are risky because
each person you’re ‘warming up’ with is trying to take your brains out because it’s a lottery for them if they win.”
On believing he stops AJ in the first half of the fight
“I think it ends early, yeah. It all depends on what I decide to do. I know I can go to war, go toe-to-toe with anybody. I’ve done it with the biggest puncher on the planet that’s ever lived. I know I can get off the floor, recover, and I can do all of that can recover quick. You’ve seen me recover from the most deathly situations.
“But he can’t. He can fight, and he can get up off the floor, but then he needs to take rounds off. He doesn’t have the engine or the gas tank that I have, and it’s mainly due to the muscle size he has on him. When they go, they go. There’s no recovering. It takes three or four rounds. If he fights with me for one minute, he’ll take two rounds off, and that unfortunately ain’t going to be good enough for him.”
On the importance of this fight
“It’s got to be right up there because it’s been a big rivalry for the last 10 years and both guys have wanted to win it badly. You know, at the end of our sort of careers it’s come right at the last hurdle so it’s unbelievable that we get to do it at this stage.
“Every fight is important, going forward, but this fight seems a little more special than the rest for the reason being it’s the pride of Britain fight.”
On Usyk’s last performance against Verhoeven
“I didn’t actually watch it live but what I do know is everybody’s on your d-ck until they’re not, and then you have one bad performance and you’re a piece of sh-t, as Usyk found out…It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish…They talk as if Usyk got knocked out in one round. They don’t say Usyk actually stopped this guy, knocked him out. They’re talking about what could’ve happened, or what would’ve happened.
“So I don’t really pay too much attention to it because you can be a Top G today and a piece of sh-t tomorrow, so it ain’t worth bothering about. But what I do know is I want that rematch with him, that trilogy, because I know deep in my heart I won those fights and for whatever reason he’s been giving a decision over me.
“And he wants it, too. Because deep within him, he’s a fighting man, too, and he’s thinking ‘Did I win them? Didn’t I win them?’ He’s even admitted on camera this fight’s really close, if [I] would’ve gotten the decision he wouldn’t have argued…I do want that chance to put that right.
“And what a way to end my career. Batter this bum up and down at Cardiff in front of 80,000 and then go to Madison Square Garden and get the revenge on The Rabbit, finally.”
