Tyson Fury: I’d vacate title rather than face David Haye
New heavyweight champion Tyson Fury has told the returning David Haye he would rather vacate one of his titles than fight him.
Fury sits atop the heavyweight division after his stunning win over Wladimir Klitschko in Germany on Saturday and, as such, is the man pretenders will now have to negotiate with and then beat.
Amongst that number is Haye, who this week announced a return to the ring after a near four-year exile.
He held a world belt himself until a dismal defeat to Klitschko in 2011 and since then has danced between retirement, comebacks and reality television.
During that period he twice cancelled booked fights with Fury who has little interest in forgiveness.
“Absolutely point-blank, I will say Haye will never get a chance after what he did to me,” he said in the Guardian.
“I will never give him a payday. If he gets mandatory for the WBA, he can have the WBA. Let him go and fight Fred Flintstone or Joe Bloggs and make no money. Whatever title he gets mandatory for, I will vacate. Let him fight the next challenger. I’m not giving him a payday.
“I don’t care if he says I can make £10m, it’s not about money for me. I’m not here about the money, because, let’s face it, the next fight with Wladimir Klitschko is going to be for a lot of money.
“He is getting no opportunities from us. He is a pretender, a fraud.”