Tyson Fury called out by Carl Froch for hurting the sport of boxing

Four-time world champion Carl Froch has lectured Tyson Fury about his decision to go for a big payday against UFC champion Francis Ngannou.

The spat began a couple of weeks ago when Froch hosted former WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew on his podcast Froch On Fighting. Both fighters agreed that Fury’s decision to turn his back on matches with boxing heavyweight champions in favor of a massive payday in Saudi Arabia was bad for the Gypsy King’s legacy.

Not one to hold back, Fury answered back, calling out both fighters for not earning the kind of money that he was, as well as calling both men “average fighters”.

Froch decided to take Fury to task, answering the first part by saying, “It’s not classy is it? To talk about money, it’s not classy at all.”

But where he really chided the WBC heavyweight champion was in the second assertion. “I’m an average fighter? Average fighter?!? Come on!”

Froch, who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame this year, and is ranked as the third greatest ever pound-for-pound British fighter, said, “Your CV does not stack up against mine. It just doesn’t. You’ve got four wins as a world champion. Four! Steve Cunningham, an old cruiserweight. Vladimir Klitschko, you beat him in an absolute stinker. I was there that night. Alright, you won, nobody thought you’d win, you got the belts, fair play to you. Horrible fight, never watched it again. And you got two wins. You fought Deontay Wilder three times, beat him twice. They are the other two. You’ve got four wins as a world champion. I’ve got eleven wins as a world champion. To say that my career was average is just stupid. It’s ridiculous.”

To put this into perspective, Lennox Lewis defended his title 14 times, Mike Tyson defended his ten times, and the great Muhammad Ali defended his 16 times.

Then adding some sugar to help the medicine go down, Froch admits that he doesn’t want to have an argument with Fury, saying, “It’s hurting me to give you stick. I’ve got a lot of love for you. But I’ve got to be honest and I’ve got to be straight. I want you to just be defending the WBC title against other champions or top challengers. The Usyk fight didn’t happen, you’re fighting Ngannou instead of Usyk. You should be defending your title really. You’ve got an obligation to the sport of heavyweight boxing as a champion.”

For fighters, it is always about pride, and a boxer’s legacy is front and center in their thoughts. Froch warned Fury, “When your career is over and finished, you want your legacy to be intact, you want that respect, and you are killing off the fans. The fans are turning against you.

“Deep down, I think you know that you’re hurting the sport and I think you know that what you’re doing is actually bad for the game.”

And finally, Froch gave the knife a final twist by saying, “You can have as much money as you want in your wallet, turn up to the Hall of Fame party next year, you won’t be dining on the top table with me and my peers. You won’t belong there with that CV.”

That is perhaps something that Fury can still put right.