Trash talk is a little bit like breathing for Tyson Fury. He has to do it. Yet, he hasn’t been able to draw Deontay Wilder into the rhetorical fray since their Feb. 22 rematch was announced about 11 days ago.
That’s a surprise, especially for Wilder, who has never been known not to respond. So far, there’s been silence from Wilder. Maybe training camp is keeping him busy. Maybe a reported bout with the flu has affected his vocal chords. Whatever the reason, there’s been hardly a word.
The restless Fury had to look elsewhere. He didn’t have to look for long.
Fury took a shot, a Twitter taunt, at Oleksandr Usyk, calling him “some cruiserweight bum.’’
Fury was angry that one of the acronyms dropped him from its rankings. Fury has a claim on the lineal heavyweight title, but as far as the World Boxing Organization is concerned, he is persona-non-grata. The WBO exiled him from their rankings when he decided to fight Wilder a second time.
Champ we respect you a lot, but you aren't available… that's the reason wbo removed you from the rankings. By the way champ, good luck …
— Paco Valcárcel, Esq. (@PacoValcarcel) January 7, 2020
The acronyms do this kind of thing all the time and it’s about as dumb as a franchise belt. But let them explain the unexplainable. As far as Fury is concerned, there is no explanation for Usyk being the No. 1 challenger to a belt held by Anthony Joshua after just one heavyweight fight.
WBO president Paco Valcarcel tweeted that his organization would like to see Fury fight emerging heavyweight Bakhodir Jalolov of Uzbekistan.
Say no more. Fury finally had another Twitter war.
“Maybe if you hadn’t removed me from number 1 ranked WBO! And put some cruiserweight bum with one fight at heavyweight then you could have a say!’, Fury said in a counter.
Valcarcel replied, which he might come to regret. He’s feeding the beast.
Anyway, Valcarcel said: “Champ we respect you a lot, but you aren’t available… that’s the reason WBO removed you from the rankings. By the way champ, good luck.’’
By the way, the real reason for the removal was that a sanctioning fee is not available.