Lennox Lewis and Tyson Fury have both called for a former heavyweight champion to retire from the sport.
Lewis timed his retirement perfectly back in 2003. He had beaten every man he faced on his way to becoming undisputed champion and bowed out on a tough final defence against Vitali Klitschko.
Fury meanwhile has just taken his first loss to Oleksandr Usyk back in May as he attempted to become a four-belt ruler. He is now in camp ahead of a rematch, in which he hopes to get revenge in December.
It was on the Pound 4 Pound podcast that Tyson first spoke highly of his former opponent Deontay Wilder – who he fought three times, drawing once and winning twice to claim and defend the WBC belt – but suggested it’s a good time for him to hang up the gloves after suffering back to back defeats to Joseph Parker and Zhilei Zhang.
“Being truthful, I’d like to see poor old Deontay retire from boxing. When I beat Wilder he was 44-0 with 43 knockouts, and he knocked out the guy who went the distance with him in a rematch. That means he knocked out every single person he ever faced.
Obviously he lost the three fights to me. We took a lot of years off of each other’s lives. That war that ended in the eleventh round by knockout, that takes a lot out your tank and you don’t recover from fights like that. Between me and Wilder in our trilogy there were ten knockdowns. It takes a lot out of a fighter.
Even when he’s come back and had a couple of fights since against Joseph Parker and Zhilei Zhang, he’s only a shadow of his former glory. The only thing left of Deontay is his name. And that’s it. So I’d like to see him retire for sure before he does damage to himself.”
Meanwhile, Lewis made his call for Wilder to hang up the gloves on social media.
“The Bronze Bomber told us before the fight [with Zhilei Zhang] that he would retire if he didn’t win. I think that’s a wise decision.
He’s more than carved out a life in which he can take care of his daughter, so before he suffers any more damage, it’s best to leave the game with your faculties intact because there’s a lot more life to live after boxing.”
