Bob Arum: Inactivity Hasn’t Negatively Impacted Tyson Fury

Top Rank Boxing’s Bob Arum insists that Tyson Fury hasn’t been feeling the effects of inactivity.

Fury hasn’t competed since Feb. 2020. That was when he stopped Deontay Wilder via seventh-round TKO to capture the WBC and The Ring Heavyweight Titles. He was set to return for a trilogy fight with Wilder in July but his return will have to wait until Oct. 9 due to a positive COVID-19 test.

Arum told Sky Sports that he doesn’t believe Fury has been negatively impacted by the delays.

“I’m not a psychiatrist but I spent considerable time with Fury after the arbitrator’s decision then after his diagnosis. It seemed to me he wasn’t affected by anything. Tyson had a great mentality and none of these issues have any affect. Is he fooling me? Fooling himself? I don’t think so. None of this has affected him adversely.”

Arum went on to discuss what went wrong when it came to the COVID-19 outbreak in Fury’s camp.

“It was negligence on all of ours parts – Top Rank’s and Tyson’s. It started out with a nice, relatively small group, of sparring partners in our gym,” Arum said.

“Before anybody realized the sparring partners were bringing in friends and [Fury’s trainer] Sugarhill Steward had other fighters that he was training. Nobody was testing. It was going on the way we used to do it, before COVID. That was irresponsible on all of our parts.

“Tyson had a relatively mild case but had heavy breathing and congestion. There was no choice but to postpone it. We are hoping the bans on travel will be lifted and we will get some Brits over for the fight. They bring such a vibe to an arena!”

Tyson Fury was hoping to get a title unification showdown with WBA, IBF, WBO, and IBO Heavyweight Champion Anthony Joshua. Wilder ended up winning an arbitration case, granting him the trilogy fight first. Joshua will meet Oleksandr Usyk on Sept. 25.