Tyson Fury should retire from boxing after his horror showing against Francis Ngannou, according to heavyweight legend Riddick Bowe.
Fury struggled to a split decision over Ngannou last weekend in Riyadh, leaving his legacy tarnished amid accusations of taking the fight too lightly.
Bowe, who won the undisputed heavyweight title, says Fury shouldn’t be fighting the best top division fighters and would be best to walk away.
Tyson Fury urged to retire by heavyweight legend
“Either he needs to retire, or he shouldn’t fight them [the top guys] because he fought a guy with no fight. The guy was turning [over],” Bowe told Fight Hub TV.
“For a guy to have no experience as the young man had. Tyson Fury should have got him out early. He made Tyson look bad.
“He was hitting him with shots and things. But if he doesn’t have any experience, how can he do all that to you?
“He [Ngannou] just made him look bad. In my opinion, if I were Tyson, I would retire. But I think he’s going to continue and see what happens.”
On whether Fury was winning having been knocked down, Bowe added: “He could have been winning, but he wasn’t enjoying the fight. It was a tie [draw] up until that point [the third round].
“The other guy [Ngannou] should have been ahead on points, but I guess they didn’t do it that way.
“He overlooked Francis in this one. Maybe Tyson didn’t put as much effort in.”
Legacy tarnished
The knockdown changed everybody’s view of Fury after several former opponents did similar to him. Wilder had him down four times while Steve Cunningham dropped him, and John McDermott gave him kittens.
It all adds to a legacy reversal for Fury, whose in-ring skills had many calling him one of the greatest of all time. This is no longer the case after a massive reality check.
Fury is now considered one of the top guys of a mediocre era when there weren’t many heavyweights who could cut it during the golden eras of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
Those days of having multiple Hall of Famers are long gone, with only Deontay Wilder a shoo-in for the honor in the coming years. Fury’s victories over the “Bronze Bomber” will assure him of his place.
But below Fury and Wilder, none of the current crop will get anywhere near a Hall of Fame place. That says a lot about the current climate.
Phil Jay is an experienced boxing news writer.
Editor of World Boxing News since 2010.
