Tyson Fury gets retirement green light as Frank Warren lifts lid on boxing plans

Fury has been criticised by some corners of the boxing world having narrowly overcome Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia at the end of last month.

He had originally been set to lock horns with Usyk on December 23 but injuries sustained in Saudi Arabia have forced their battle to be delayed.

Warren, Fury's promoter, has insisted he would back his client if he opted to quit boxing.

But he's said the Gypsy King has no plans to give up and will show the world what he's made of when his fight with Usyk finally goes ahead.

“It was an off night [for Fury]," Warren told Seconds Out.

"He won the fight, and he does get clipped in fights.

“It’s happened a couple of times in fights, and I hate to see that.

"He knows better than anybody, Tyson.

"He knows better than me, you, about what he should be doing.

“If he wanted to retire, I would wholeheartedly back him.

"He doesn’t want to retire, and I don’t think he should retire because it was what it was: an off night.

"We’ll certainly find out if it was an off night or not in his next fight."

Warren's comments echo those of manager Spencer Brown, who also dismissed talk of Fury quitting the sport.

"There is absolutely no truth in this, none whatsoever," he said.

"Tyson is raring to go."

Warren, meanwhile, also admitted he was surprised at how good Ngannou was during his recent fight with Fury.

He said: “Until the first bell went, he didn’t know what was in front of him.

"Look on the other side. Did Ngannou turn out to be the fighter that you thought he would be?

“He wasn’t in there with someone that was hapless and couldn’t fight, and if that happened against somebody that couldn’t fight and wasn’t what everybody said he was going to be before the fight, then I’d sit there and say, ‘Yeah, maybe your right.'”

And the boxing promoter also said it was he, rather than Fury, who forced the upcoming bout with Usyk to be delayed.

“The fight is on, and we’ll announce it very, very soon," he added.

“Tyson said in the ring, ‘Get yourself ready for the 23rd.’ I’m the one that stopped that.

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"I said, ‘No, it’s not happening. You’ve been in camp for twelve weeks. You’ve trained since the Chisora fight [last December].'

"I think a week after that; he was back in training. He trains every day.

“He works very hard. That’s his well-being. "Physically and mentally, he does that, and he was training hard. You can’t keep doing that to your body.

"Your body needs a break. Everybody says it was a hard fight for him. He needs a couple of weeks off."