Saturday afternoon US time in the United Kingdom, former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury makes his much anticipated return to the sport. Who is his opponent Sefer Seferi? Plus, a vacant world title is on the line in the co-main event.
What a difference a single night in this sport can make. Prior to fighting long reigning heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko in 2015, Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) wasn’t looked at like he is now. He was a contender in the division for sure coming off improved, dominant performances against Derek Chisora and Christian Hammer, but he wasn’t expected to pull off the win against Klitschko any more than the previous twenty two men were able to.
Sure, he brought some interesting intangibles in the form of his somewhat reckless personality and in having a rare size advantage over the dominant champion, but he wasn’t supposed to win. Yet, he did. Over the course of twelve rounds against the era’s top heavyweight in Wladimir Klitschko, Fury shut him down. Wlad never got any offense going. Neither did Fury, really, but he got in just enough work nick enough rounds to get the fight on the cards. It was a pretty terrible fight in truth, but also a landmark one. The heavyweight king had fallen and a new one stood in his place.
A huge money rematch was booked, but it never happened. Instead Tyson Fury fell apart. First it was postponed a few months for a sprained ankle. Then Fury started acting notably erratically even for himself and the rematch was eventually called off altogether due to him being “medically unfit to compete” as he battled mental illness on some level amid rumors of substance abuse. He followed that by ballooning in weight up to close to 400 pounds. It looked for all the while that he’d never fight again.
Here he is though. Tyson Fury weighed in today at 271 pounds for his fight with Sefer Seferi (23-1, 21 KOs). That’s higher than his best weight of around 250, but it is also a weight he has fought at before a few times. Physically, he really seems to be getting there. Mentally is anyone’s guess, but Seferi won’t be enough of a test to tell us. The Macedonian heavyweight has stepped up once to Euro-level and lost wide to Manuel Charr. Otherwise he has mostly just fought six round fights against regional level foes. Oh, and he is a cruiserweight too, not a heavyweight. All but a couple of his fights came at the 200 lb limit. Even at heavyweight he has weighed in around 215. He has no experience at this level, has lost well below it against Charr, and will be at a massive size disadvantage. This is the point though as Tyson Fury eases back into the sport.
In the official co-main event but the competitive real main event, Terry Flanagan (33-0, 13 KOs) tries to become a two division world titleholder when he meets American abroad Maurice Hooker (23-0-3, 13 KOs) for the vacant WBO junior welterweight belt. I’m pretty cold on this one. Hooker is not an inspiring world title challenger. It took a downright robbery draw in 2016 against victim Darleys Perez to keep him undefeated. The Dallas product also has no notable wins otherwise. Why he is here I am really not sure. It isn’t as if Terry Flanagan was an inspiring lightweight titleholder either. He’s a good fighter with some fine ring IQ that should comfortably win here, but it isn’t as if he was defending against the top of the division at lightweight. His last fight looked like a pretty good win against Spanish-Russian contender Petr Petrov, but even Petrov went on to be destroyed in his next fight. His previous three defenses against Derry Matthews, Mzonke Fana, and Orlando Cruz were just not against world level competition.
Stateside this is being carried by Showtime on their Facebook and Youtube pages thanks to a late pickup, no subscription required. It is an odd card that doesn’t really have a true compelling fight, but at the same time marks the return of a huge name and crowns a new titleholder. What else do you have to watch in the early afternoon? The broadcast begins at 4:30 PM Eastern. BT Sport has the call in the UK.
