Exclusive: Moore Predicts Fury will Return for £500million Payday

One of the UK’s most influential trainers has predicted the amount of money it will take to tempt Tyson Fury back into the ring after the former unified world heavyweight champion announced his retirement.

In a move which appeared to dash the public’s hopes of finally seeing him face long-time rival Anthony Joshua, Fury took to social media earlier this week to claim that December’s return against Oleksandr Usyk had been his last ever bout.

Although Jamie Moore is prepared to take his fellow Mancunian at his word, the 46-year-old insisted the seismic effect Saudi Arabia’s move into boxing has had upon the sport means nothing can be ruled-out - reminding that Fury has already teased the purse he would demand before agreeing to meet Joshua in what would be an all-British blockbuster.

“Tyson has already told everyone what he wants for that and it was half a billion,” Moore, who oversees the careers of Jack Catterall, Dave Allenand GB Olympian Pat Brown, said.

“If they come back to him and say ‘There’s half a billion quid’ then he’d be a fool not to do it in my opinion. But we’ll see.”

“This is the impact Turki (Alalshikh) has had on boxing,” Moore, speaking exclusively to SportsBoom.com, continued. 

“Two years ago, there’s not a chance anyone would pay him that or anything even close."

“Now we’re in a time when someone might pay him what he wants. You couldn’t rule it out if they think the numbers make sense."

"You can never say never in boxing right now because of what we’ve seen happen.”

CAUGHT BY SUPRISE

Fury’s decision to hang up his gloves appeared to take many influential figures by surprise, coming only hours after Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn had suggested his client and self-proclaimed Gypsy King are destined to clash this summer. 

Hearn, the chairman of Matchroom, even went so far as to suggest the meeting would take place at Wembley Stadium, given the general public’s desire to see the two men lock horns.

Fury, who succumbed to Usyk for a second time in Riyadh a month ago, responded by stating he was stepping away from the ring after dropping consecutive points decisions to the Ukrainian. 

Their first contest was for the undisputed crown while the return, with Usyk subsequently forced to relinquish his IBF belt, being for both the WBA (Super) and WBO versions, as well as Fury’s old IBO and WBC titles. 

Now aged 36, he regained the latter during the second instalment of a memorable trilogy against Deontay Wilder, before successfully defending by confirming his superiority over the American.

Like many others, Hearn suspects Fury’s move could be a tactic to improve his negotiating position should Alalshikh  who controls the Middle Eastern Kingdom’s General Entertainments Authority, elect to try and make the Joshua fight.

“Tyson is in a win-win situation,” said Moore, previously British, Commonwealth and European light-middleweight champion. 

“He’s a very wealthy man and he’s at the end of an unbelievable career. In that sense, whether he retires or not is almost an irrelevance in many ways."

"If he does fight again, then it’s going to be against AJ and if he doesn’t then he’s had an unbelievable career and made a phenomenal amount of money for himself and his family.”

NO AJ FIGHT

Fury (34-2-1) was unbeaten before running into Usyk. Joshua (28-4), who won gold at the 2012 Olympic games, has also lost twice to Usyk and failed to wrestle the IBF belt from Daniel Dubois’ grasp four months ago.

“In all honesty, I think that ship has sailed,” Moore said. “We should’ve seen the Fury v Joshua fight three years ago or even last year.

“But it’s still an intriguing fight and if people want to see it then I’ll watch it, of course."

"It should have been when they were both in a better position but it seems that now people only take a risk when there is no real risk if you understand what I mean.”