Boxing Heavyweight Champion Tyson Fury has a lot of targets.
Whether it be discussing homosexuals, pedophiles and their roles in the apocalypse, or women and where they are at their most effective (the kitchen, apparently), the newly crowned boxing king isn’t one to be afraid of saying what’s on his mind.
Earlier this year, reports emerged of Fury being in discussions to enter the world of Mixed Martial Arts, something of which he had previously been dismissive.
Coming off his recent win over Wladimir Klitschko, Fury appeared on the MMA Hour to discuss those talks, a potential future MMA bout and if his opinion on the sport has changed.
Not yet, it hasn’t.
“I think it’s for people who can’t box basically,” Fury said. “It’s not really entertaining. The only time it’s entertaining is when they stand up and punch each other, and that’s what I think fans like as well. I don’t think anybody likes to see people rolling about [on] the floor.”
“As soon as they start grappling up and down on the floor and scoring points, I’m not too sure how it works, and when I see it I’m not really too interested in it. Sometimes they stay on the floor for quite a while until the referee says get up nothing’s going on.”
“So I think I speak on behalf of a lot of people when I say the best part of MMA is when they stand up, trading punches.”
Despite a dislike for the grappling aspect, Fury, who has trained with British MMA fighters Dan Hardy and Paul Daley, as well as GLORY heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven, isn’t shying away from a potential future bout.
“I just want to fight the best stand up fighter in the world,” Fury said. “Whoever the best stand up fighter is in the world, I want to fight him because I believe I’m that man. I don’t care if he wants kicks, whatever he wants to do, we can have an all in fight, because I believe I’m the best combat fighter on the planet.”
“Obviously, an MMA fighter can’t box with a boxer, and a boxer can’t wrestle up and down the floor with an MMA fighter, it’s not going to work. But if we can meet in the middle somewhere, on middle ground, then I’d fight anyone of them guys. No problem at all.”
Supposedly, this isn’t all bravado. The self-proclaimed ‘Gypsy King’ has held conversations with Bellator President Scott Coker about potentially making an appearance for the promotion.
“Me and Scott Coker [has] had many a conversation in the past [about me] coming to Bellator and fight. You know I’m champion of the world in boxing and I’d like to unify and switch. I’d like to fight the UFC Heavyweight Champion, I’ve been calling Cain Velasquez out for two years and then he got beaten, so it showed what I said was about right.”
Fury was reluctant to commit to an MMA fight, instead preferring “some sort of hybrid fight”.
“I’m not really interested in a 100% MMA fight,” he said. “Because obviously they’re not going to stand up and bang with the heavyweight champion of the world. They’re just going to want to take me to the floor, and that’s not my forte. My forte is full action packed fighting. Whether it’s stand up, kick, punch or anything goes, or something like that, but not wrestling up and down the floor. I’m not into that sort of stuff.”
“I believe Dana White knows about me challenging Cain Velasquez out many times and made quite a few comments on it. Dana White’s quite a big boxing fan as it goes, but like I said any time any place anywhere, he wants me to fight against their heavyweight champion no problem.”
“Let’s sort it out, let’s sort out a bit of a hybrid fight and let’s kick on.”
People may be wondering what spiked interest in Mixed Martial Arts for the controversial Fury, and perhaps unsurprisingly, it stems from a similarly notorious figure in the UFC.
“Conor McGregor actually got me physically watching MMA,” Fury said. “And got me wanting to check the results. Because the way he is carrying on, this guy… I see a bit of myself in this guy and I wanted to check him out. I saw the fight with the Mendes guy. I will be watching the Aldo fight, because he’s had a lot to say hasn’t he, Conor McGregor?”
“I think he copies me in everything he does. I was the first big trash talker [on] these shores – Britain and Ireland-, and all of a sudden he starts copying me, this Conor McGregor guy, I grew a big beard, he grew a big beard. I start talking bullshit about everybody, he starts talking bullshit about everybody. So if it worked for the heavyweight champ of the world, it must work for Conor McGregor, some guy who’s 140 pounds or whatever he is.”
“It’s a bit like my fight with [Wladimir] Klitschko. Aldo is the reigning champion for many years, and he’s the young kid on the block shouting his mouth off, some people say he’s a pretender that can’t fight, so [there are] very, very much similarities between me and Conor McGregor. “
And I’m living proof it can be done. I beat Klitschko, he can beat Jose Aldo? Why not? For Sure.”
