Tag: oliver mccall

Degrees of Separation: Linking Tyson Fury with his dad

Boxing Junkie was able to link heavyweight champ Tyson Fury with his father, John Fury, who fought in the 1980s and ’90s.

Six degrees of separation is a theory that everyone in the world is separated by no more than six social connections.

In other words, you know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows Queen Elizabeth. Or so the concept goes.

We’re borrowing the six degrees concept – well, sort of loosely – to connect fighters from the past to their more contemporary counterparts in our new occasional feature, “Degrees of Separation.”

Example: Let’s connect Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Super easy; we did it in two steps. Senior fought Grover Wiley, who fought Junior.

In this installment of the Boxing Junkie feature, we wanted to link another father and son set: heavyweight champ Tyson Fury and his dad, John Fury, who suddenly has an itch to fight a comebacking Mike Tyson.

The elder Fury, who at 6-foot-3 is six inches shorter than his son, had a pro career. He was 8-4-1 (1 KO) between 1987 and 1995. And he faced one big-name opponent, one-time titleholder Henry Akinwande, who stopped him in three rounds.

Akinwande was the fighter who allowed us to link father and son in seven steps. Check it out:

John Fury fought …

Henry Akinwande, who fought …

Oliver McCall, who fought …

Lennox Lewis, who fought …

Vitali Klitschko, who fought …

Chris Arreola, who fought …

Deontay Wilder, who fought …

Tyson Fury

Could you do it in fewer steps? Let us know via Twitter or Facebook. Or you can contact me on Twitter. And please follow us!

Read more:

Degrees of separation: Connecting John L. Sullivan to Deontay Wilder

Degrees of Separation: Linking Filipino greats Flash Elorde, Manny Pacquiao

Degrees of Separation: Linking Japanese greats Fighting Harada and Naoya Inoue

Degrees of Separation: Linking Tyson Fury to first U.K.-born heavyweight champ

Degrees of Separation: Connecting Canelo Alvarez with Mexican legends

Degrees of Separation: Linking the Mayweathers

Degrees of Separation: Linking Manny Pacquiao to Pancho Villa

Manny Robles on Andy Ruiz fallout: ‘Money changes some people’

Manny Robles believes he did the best he could to get Andy Ruiz prepared for the rematch against Anthony Joshua…

Manny Robles is still smarting over his split from ex-heavyweight titlist Andy Ruiz.

The veteran trainer was in Ruiz’s corner the night he notched an historic upset over Anthony Joshua last June to pick up three heavyweight belts. He was also there in Saudi Arabia six months later in the rematch to witness Ruiz, sluggish and out of shape, hand back the titles to Joshua in a disappointing points loss.

Soon thereafter, Ruiz cut ties with Robles. According to Robles, he never had another chance to chat with Ruiz after that weekend.

That left an acid taste in Robles’ mouth. In a recent interview with IFL TV, Robles elaborated on aspects of the fallout as well as Ruiz’s lack of preparation for the rematch. Ruiz weighed in at 283.5 pounds, nearly 15 more than his weight for the first bout.

“Obviously, [I was] very disappointed,” Robles said. “I tried to hang in there as much as I could and not lose faith in my fighter and hoping that he would wake up one day and realize the importance and responsibility that he had for himself and his family.”

But with instant fame came heavyweight riches.

“You gotta understand: He’s a ghetto boy,” Robles said. “He’s a kid who never had anything in life and all of a sudden you wake up and you have millions of dollars in the bank and [are] ready to make more money, more millions at that. It’s just overwhelming.”

And with riches came the usual sycophants.

“He made a lot of new friends that weren’t around when he had nothing,” Robles said. “And unfortunately people change with money, money and fame. Money changes some people. I can’t say all people.

“But it changed him. And unfortunately it changed him for the worst.”

Robles, however, understands that such an outcome is nothing new. Many heavyweight underdogs – from Buster Douglas to Oliver McCall – who reach the pinnacle of the division suddenly find themselves back to square one. The good life becomes a little too good.

“It’s hard to wake up in the morning when you have that much money in the bank,” Robles said. “I tried to convince him that you have a huge responsibility. If money is what drives you, go out there and make more. Lets go beat this guy again.

“Like I said, I did everything I could on my end but unfortunately it wasn’t enough.”

Asked what he thinks about a rumored fight between Ruiz and Luis Ortiz in the summer, Robles still believed in his former charge.

“Andy can win that fight, but he’s just got to be ready,” Robles said. “He’s gotta show up.”