Tyson Fury News: Newly-Minted Heavyweight Champion Stripped Of IBF World Title, Engages In Verbal Tirade With Former Champion Lennox Lewis
Reigning world heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury has been stripped of his IBF world title. He also engaged in a verbal war with former champion and legend Lennox Lewis.
The 27-year old British boxer won the WBO, WBA, IBF, and IBO titles two weeks ago in Dusseldorf, Germany, after ending Wladimir Klitschko's nine-year reign through a unanimous decision verdict. However, it had just been decided that Fury would no longer be holding the IBF world title.
In a report by Rick Reeno of Boxingscene, the International Boxing Federation has decided to take such action mainly due to Fury's failure to fight a mandatory bout against Vyacheslav Glazkov. He was unable to do so because of the rematch clause he had during the pre-fight negotiations he had with Klitschko.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
The report adds that the purse bid, which was scheduled for Friday, December 11th, had already been cancelled. Glazkov will now fight Charles Martin for the vacant title.
Meanwhile, the outspoken Fury recently engaged in a trade of verbal barbs with fellow British heavyweight boxer and former champion Lennox Lewis. The two men have been going at it for months now, when Fury first called out Lewis, who has been retired since 2008.
In a report by Edward Chaykovsky of Boxingscene.com, Fury did apologize for the previous statements he made about Lewis during his interview after the Klitschko fight. However, the feud was reignited during Fury's appearance on MMA Fighting.com's "The MMA Hour" show, hosted by Ariel Helwani.
During the said interview, Fury called out "The Lion," whom he described as a "jealous old man".
"I don't care how old he is, if he's that good let him come back and beat George Foreman's record," Fury said in the report. "I'm hoping for that fight, whenever he wants it, any time, any place, anywhere."
The 50-year old Lewis did offer a classy response through social media.
"Nonetheless, he's done NOTHING for ME to be jealous of nor do I hate him," Lewis wrote. "I'm actually starting to think it's the other way around. In my prime, I didn't call out retired champions. In my era, we respected them."
