Heavyweight champ Tyson Fury says he’ll fight the Russians — if they come to the U.K. Tyson Fury, right, and Deontay Wilder. (John Gurzinski/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)
Heavyweight champion Tyson Fury is with his former foe Wladimir Klitschko in spirit as he fights off Russian invaders in Ukraine. And according to Fury, if Vladimir Putin’s troops want a piece of him, all they need to to do is bring the battle to his backyard.
“When it comes to war on U.K. soil, I’ll be first up,” the English pugilist told Talk Sport.
Klitschko had spent a decade as the king of the heavyweight division until Fury defeated him by decision in 2015. Now, the former champ is joining forces with Ukrainian fighters including Vasiliy Lomachenko, Oleksandr Usyk and his own brother Vitali Klitschko, as they battle the odds to keep their country free from Putin’s Russian forces.
“It’s what they should be doing,” Fury said.
Fury admits that at 6-foot-9 and nearly 250 pounds, he’d be a big target on the battlefield. The Klitschko brothers, who are both retired from boxing, clock in a couple inches shorter than Fury at roughly the same weight.
The fight game has been abuzz with talk of a Usyk and Fury fight, though that deal never came together. Fury told Talk Sport that’s unlikely to happen any time soon because “Oleksandr Usyk’s back in Ukraine with a machine gun.”
On April 23, Fury is slated to fight Dillian Whyte in London.
Vitali Klitschko, who is now the mayor of Kyiv, told “Good Day Britain” last week that “I don’t have another choice” other than taking arms against Russians attacking his city.
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