Tyson Fury has joked that he should spar with Wayne Rooney to prepare for Oleksandr Usyk, given that the footballer is much shorter than him.
Legendary former Everton and Manchester United striker Rooney was sat ringside for Fury's latest world heavyweight title defence against Derek Chsiora. And in an interview with TalkSPORT after watching the Manchester native land his fourth consecutive stoppage victory in a world title bout, he claimed that Fury should be knighted for his achievements in boxing.
Rooney argued that Fury had done so much away from the UK to enhance British boxing that he should be rewarded with a rare knighthood. The boxer isn't so keen on such an honour, but was very appreciative of what Rooney said, having watched him play for Manchester United as he was coming up the ranks.
"I think he's an absolute legend," Rooney said at ringside. "I think what he's done for boxing he's entertaining, his skills are incredible, his mentality is incredible. If I'm being honest I probably think that he should be knighted because he hasn't been afraid to go abroad, he's won titles abroad, defended them abroad and he sums up and epitomises everything boxing is."
Fury was bowled over by the compliment, noting that the football star is a "proper legend", and joking that the pair should get in the ring for a spar. The ex-Manchester United star, who retired from playing last year at the age of 35, is a big fan of the sport, but stands a foot shorter than Fury at 5'9" and likely wouldn't do much in the ring.
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"I grew up watching him as a youngster for England and United so that's an amazing, amazing speech from him," Fury added a few days later on TalkSPORT. "He's a massive boxing fan, he comes from a boxing family as well so hopefully we can have a little spar in the future sometime. I do need somebody smaller to prepare for Usyk so Wayne, if you're listening, get on the blower son!"
Fury will have massive six-inch height and seven-inch reach advantages when he faces Usyk next year in an undisputed world heavyweight title clash. He also tends to weigh in somewhere between 264 and 270lb, while the heaviest Usyk has weighed in during his career is 221.5lb.
