Tyson Fury: There’s no shortage of challengers but few real contenders to take on new champion

There is a lot of bad blood and the threat that Fury would relinquish his titles rather than give Haye a payday

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During the last two years an eccentric former world champion called Shannon “The Cannon” Briggs has stalked Wladimir Klitschko in gyms, at weigh-ins, in restaurants and once when the champion, as he was then, was on a paddle board on a Florida lake.

Briggs has been bundled away, glasses and plates have gone flying and, after circling Klitschko in the lake, the speedboat Briggs was driving created waves big enough to send a fuming Klitschko face first into the water. Briggs then drove away with Klitschko swearing at him and threatening revenge.

Now it will be Tyson Fury’s turn to wake up each morning with a new challenger, a new insult and, hopefully, The Cannon, who lost a world title fight to Lennox Lewis in the Nineties, will join the chasing pack. Klitschko was close last year to giving Briggs a shot at the world titles and no doubt he is on a new shortlist.

There is a long list of men with mixed credentials hovering right now, desperate to fight, and provided that the WBO, IBF and WBA see sense, and the relevance of keeping three of the belts in the company of just one champion, there is a chance for some quality horse and flesh trading. However, there is not one legitimate contender to the three belts Fury won on Saturday in Düsseldorf.

A Cuban called Luis Ortiz, a towering Finnish banger named Robert Helenius, a gawky, dangerous puncher called Joseph Parker from New Zealand and a thick-set Australian, Lucas Browne, are all in the mix over the next 18 months. They have unbeaten records and they have suitably manufactured world rankings, which is more than enough to satisfy the process of selection.

There is a rough Uzbek fighter called Ruslan Chagaev, Bryant Jennings, who is a nice-moving American, and a lethal Bulgarian by the name of Kubrat Pulev. All three have lost to Klitschko in world title fights and the three bruised veterans, alongside as many as 15 other Klitschko victims, are in the Fury race.

A small Latvian called Mairis Briedis is on the long list, so is roly-poly slugger Andy Ruiz and high on the contender pile is Ukraine’s unbeaten Vyacheslav Glazkov. There is a Polish throwback called Artur Szpilka with a devoted flock, a cocky German-based Turkish boxer named Erkan Teper and a good-looking former college American footballer, Gerald Washington. There are other American heavyweights and at some point the trio of Trevor Bryan, Charles Martin and Dominic Breazeale will have to prove whether they can fight as well in the ring as they can in the record books.


 Would Fury want to give David Haye a payday?
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They all have nicknames, most are unbeaten and that means untested. However, they can all fight a bit and, in the grand tradition of heavyweight championship boxing, they would all be acceptable in a first defence for Fury; there is very little separating the fighters and their claims. I can make a bold case for about 25 fighters to get in the ring as a first defence and that is certainly a big part of the fun. It is fun that was missing from the Klitschko years and even the menace was manufactured.

Fury would have a rematch with Klitschko and he wants to unify the titles in a fight with the WBC champion Deontay Wilder. However, Wilder has a mandatory situation coming up with Klitschko’s bitter rival, Alexander Povetkin, and there is some doubt about the rematch; one or more of Fury’s belts would be stripped if he pushed hard for a Wilder fight.

The British angle is not quite so clear. David Haye failed against Klitschko in a world title fight in Germany and twice pulled out of fights with Fury. There is a lot of bad blood and Haye would have to win an eliminator, probably against somebody from this list, to try to force Fury to fight him, and even then there is the threat that Fury would relinquish his titles rather than give Haye a payday.

Anthony Joshua is yet to be tested in 14 professional fights (PA)

Then there is Anthony Joshua, a terrific talent and unbeaten, while so far in 14 professional fights he has not broken a sweat or taken a single jab. Klitschko recently declared Joshua the future of the heavyweight division and also claimed Haye would knock out Fury. It might be hard to stomach, but people say some awfully dismissive things about Fury and I’m not sure that a bigger so-called clown has ever held the world title.

“A lot of people are jealous and I will live with that, I have a great life,” said Fury when he started to hear the bold claims of those who both discredited him and promised a knockout if they ever met. “Think about it – I’m the one that gets called the fool!”