Legendary British heavyweight Lennox Lewis does not believe Tyson Fury has yet done enough to join him in the annals of boxing history.
The current WBC world champion is widely regarded as the number one heavyweight of his era having held every available belt in the division at some point in his career.
With that being said, while Fury has beaten the likes of Deontay Wilder and Wladimir Klitschko, he has not cleared up the division by any means.
Fellow champ Oleksandr Usyk, Joe Joyce and Anthony Joshua are still in contention for the top spot.
Fury is also yet to hold all four belts in the division at the same time and Lewis believes that is an essential part of building a legacy in boxing.
“I believe that obviously he has to be undisputed heavyweight champion of the world,” Lewis told SecondsOut.
“If he chooses, he can clean up the division and box the other heavyweights that are out there.
“But I think the first thing is getting the undisputed heavyweight [championship] of the world.”
“That was what I did. I basically boxed [Mike] Tyson, which was my foe at the time, and this is the fight that the whole world wanted to see the outcome of.
“I couldn’t retire without having that fight under my belt.
“For Tyson Fury, he can’t retire without boxing Usyk.
“And, if he wanted to clean up the division, then there’s other guys that are in his era that he needs to clean up.”
Before Fury can take on Usyk, however, he must first get past heavyweight veteran, Derek Chisora, on Saturday night at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Even then, Fury has stated that he will never fight for the undisputed titles, as he refuses to pay the IBF sanctioning fees.
This dates back to his dispute with the organisation after he won the title against Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 and then was stripped less than two weeks later when he refused to fight his mandatory challenger.
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News Summary:
- Lennox Lewis explains what Tyson Fury must do to go down in boxing history just like him and insists he must fight Oleksandr Usyk
- Check all news and articles from the latest Boxing updates.