Tommy Fury has been shredded once again for pulling out of his fight with Darren Till over a threat made in jest at their launch press conference.
The boxing star was due to return to the ring on January 18 against former UFC welterweight title challenger Till. However, after the Liverpool native made the tongue-in-cheek comment that he would kick his opponent in the head if he were losing after a few rounds, Fury pulled out of the fight.
Now, Till is set to face a different opponent in his Misfits Boxing debut, while Fury is currently looking for another fight altogether. He has called out Jake Paul among others, but it seems unclear if a rematch is set to happen.
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Tommy Fury pulled out of Darren Till fight over kick concerns
After an explosive launch press conference where a brawl broke out involving his dad John Fury, Tommy Fury looked more than ready for an exciting fight and build-up. However, earlier this month he announced that due to a comment his rival made about throwing a kick, he was pulling out.
“I can’t believe I’m writing this but I am now not fighting Darren Till on January 18th 2025,” he wrote in a lengthy statement.
“For the one simple reason being that Darren has stated over and over that he does not want to abide by professional boxing rules and that if he is loosing the fight he will resort to kicking and other stupid MMA tactics.
“I am a professional boxer, I have been out of the ring for over a year and I wanted this to be a great BOXING fight for the fans. I have wasted weeks in training camp.
“We are working hard to get a new opponent and date. I promise to get a better opponent and better fight for you guys. Good news around the corner.”
Josh Thomson feels Tommy Fury didn’t want to fight over Christmas
The decision to skip the fight has been laughed at by many in the combat world, particularly given that Fury previously joked about elbowing KSI in their fight. And legendary MMA referee John McCarthy alongside former Strikeforce champion Josh Thomson analyzed the decision on their show Weighing In.
Thomson believes that Fury simply didn’t want to sacrifice his Christmas break for a fight camp, and may attempt to rearrange the bout at a later date. “It would make for a good fight and a very fun fight,” he explained as he pushed for the match-up to be rescheduled.
“I hope they can work this all out, but if anything, even if it does come to fruition later on, this is a good little segue into promoting their fight… We’re talking about it right now, if they can put it on [at a later date], maybe Tommy didn’t want to fight during Christmas time or New Years.
“Maybe he didn’t want to train during this time so what did he do? He probably said ‘you know what? I’m going to cancel this fight now, and I’ll renegotiate back at the end of January’. He’ll get himself back into shape and then they can fight some time in March.”
John McCarthy rips into Tommy Fury over fight cancellation
McCarthy was not as sympathetic towards Fury’s cause as Thomson, believing it to be an absurd reason to pull out of the fight. Till had a contractual clause that made using any illegal moves result in a 100 per cent fine of his purse.
After Fury slammed Till and called him an ‘idiot’, McCarthy clapped back by saying: “I think Tommy should look in the mirror. Look, okay, this is a boxing match and that’s fine but he’s sitting there saying that he’s worried about Darren Till fouling. Really?
“Like any opponent that you’re going to go up against can’t foul? Or cannot claim ‘oh I’m going to do this’? He said Darren Till stated he was going to take him down, Darren Till hasn’t taken anyone down in MMA ever.
“He said ‘I might do a high kick during the fight,’ okay. And if he does, guess what’s going to happen Josh? He’s going to lose, the referee is going to disqualify him, it just happened recently in a boxing fight where we had an MMA guy against a boxer, getting a little touched and he says ‘f*** it’ and throws it up.
“Then he lost and this is what people don’t understand… If it happens where you have a commission that’s in charge of it, not only do you lose but you don’t get paid. Your money gets held and they’ll decide how much they’re going to give you.
“So not only do you lose, you lose out on your money and put yourself in a position where guys aren’t going to fight you again. So, Darren Till is talking, he’s making chatter to bring up interest in the fight and put Tommy in a position where he’s got to say something back.
“Tommy Fury ends up just taking the entire bait, hook, everything and pulls out of the fight. I’m just going to say it right now, you don’t want to fight.”
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