Undefeated lineal heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury, proclaimed that he's definitively the best heavyweight of his generation following his trilogy fight with Deontay Wilder on Saturday night.
Fury spoke with the media in the post-fight conference following his eleventh-round knockout over his bitter rival and asked where the victory puts him amongst the great heavyweight champions in boxing history. He responded with the following, being respectful to the greats who have come before him but also making it clear that he believes he could beat any man in a boxing ring, past or present.
“I’ve always been one of those people that says I can never fight people from the past,” Fury said (h/t MMA Mania). “So I never disrespect anybody. I can only beat whoever’s in my era, and I’ve done that me whole life. I don’t like competing with other fights from the past because it’s fantasy. It’s not reality. And I wouldn’t like to disrespect any of the former champions from a long long line of champions in heavyweight, even from when heavyweights were like 185 pounds, right until today. I’d never disrespect them, I respect the sport with my whole heart. Let’s just say I’m the lineal champ of my era, and I can only be the best of my day, and I’ve done that. I’m the best fighter in my era. I’m the generation fighter. I actually feel sorry for all these guys who have to fight me because I’m in the dressing room, I’m not nervous. It’s a boxing fight to me. I feel sorry for them because they’re fighting the fighter of the generation, that’s for sure. There’s a long line of ‘em and they go all the way back to John L. Sullivan. Jack Dempsey, Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Muhammad Ali, George Forman. Ken Norton, Joe Frazier. All these guys. The Klitschko brothers. There’s been so many, so many great champions. Even the guys from today like Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk and everybody else, they’re all good champions. But, without sounding too sharp and clever, I place me self right on top of the pile. I believe that I can beat anyone in history, any man born, I believe I’ve got a really good chance of beating him. There’s always a way of beating Tyson Fury and I’ve always said it very, very clearly: you just gotta knock me spark out. If you can’t do that, I’ll win. And that’s it. But, like I said, I can only be the best in my era, and I’m definitely that.”
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