WARREN INSISTS TYSON CAN RULE THIS ERA OF BOXING AND HAILS A MIRACULOUS COMEBACK
THE 1970s belonged to Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and George Foreman.
Mike Tyson took over the ’80s, before the rise of Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis in the 1990s, and the Klitschkos after that.
Frank Warren, who has witnessed all these generations, reckons the current era belongs to Tyson Fury.
He feels it has been Fury’s since he dethroned Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 in a changing of the guard in the heavyweight division.
And in the early hours of yesterday, Fury hammered home that point – and Deontay Wilder – as he reclaimed his position as world No.1.
Warren, who co-promotes Fury, said he would even have fancied him to beat Lewis in his prime.
“Fury is up there with Ali, Foreman and Frazier, this is his generation,” he said. “He defeated the second longest-running champion in Klitschko. He beat the man who was supposed to be the best of his generation.
“Now he’s just beaten the biggest puncher in the division. You can only beat what’s put in front of you and that’s what he’s done.
“Tyson and Lennox Lewis would have been a great fight, but I would even have backed Tyson in that one.
“For a guy who doesn’t always look the most athletic – he calls himself a ‘fat bloke’ – he’s more athletic than all of the others put together.
“That was fantastic from Tyson. That was the best performance I have ever seen from a British fighter, especially from where he’s come. What an achievement. He’s the No.1 box-office draw on the planet, no doubt about it.”
Warren expects Fury to feel the love when he returns to the UK and claims the public are behind him unlike five years ago when his win over Klitschko went sour.
Fury used his heightened profile to make controversial comments, which alienated him from many people, and Warren says he has matured.
“He should have always been respected,” Warren
(right) said. “He felt he never got the respect he deserved for beating Klitschko in Germany and that was part of the problem. He’s a Traveller, he felt that they were outsiders, that he wasn’t embraced. “Unfortunately, the people around him then were all quite negative instead of lifting him. This time around, it’s different. It’s been fun. He has matured mentally.
“At the moment, he’s in a good mental place and he has all his family all around him. He had a big party to attend after the fight but, when I asked if he was going to get p **** d to celebrate, he said he’d done enough of that in the three years he’d been out.
“He’s in a great place and has come back and got the love. He was not getting that before, he was an outsider. But people, especially in Britain, love a comeback story.”
Warren admits he did not believe in Fury before he won his rematch against Derek Chisora in 2014.
“I wasn’t a believer in Tyson Fury,” he added. “I thought Chisora would beat him in the second fight and he destroyed him.
“He never lost a second of any round in that fight. After that fight, I said he would do a job on Klitschko. He went to his back yard and did it.
“In between all that he had all his problems, some selfinflicted, stupid things happened. To come back from where he was, to where he is now... that’s better than winning the world title. It’s phenomenal.”