Tyson Fury has crowned an unexpected name as boxing’s top representative for Russia. In an interview with ALF Global, Fury stated that Vladimir Putin is the country’s greatest fighter of all time.
The boxing icon was asked to pick the single greatest boxer from a list of countries during his sit-down interview. When the questioner reached Russia, Fury did not hesitate.
“Putin, yeah, he’s definitely the greatest fighter,” Fury said.
When asked about the size of Russia’s population, Fury put his own spin on the number, joking about the country having a massive pool of athletes behind its leader.
“Ah, 150 million fighters,” Fury said.
The exchange came during a session in which Fury ran through his picks for the greatest boxer from a series of nations. He named himself for England, Muhammad Ali for the United States, Julio Chavez for Mexico, Teofilo Stevenson for Cuba, Max Schmeling for Germany and Gennadiy Golovkin for Kazakhstan. For Italy, he weighed up whether Rocky Marciano should count before settling on him as the pick.
The Putin comment stood out from the rest of the list, given the Russian president has no professional boxing background, unlike every other name Fury mentioned.
During the conversation, Fury also spoke about his connection to Umar Kremlev, describing him as a partner and someone who “does more for sports in Russia than anyone else.” Fury referenced their fist league relationship, IBA Boxing, and said he had spent time with Kremlev in Istanbul at an IBA event.
“I like him. A normal guy, he does a lot of good for sports, for boxing,” Fury said of Kremlev.
Fury also reflected on being named after Mike Tyson, calling him “the living legend” he was named after, and said meeting Tyson at a Saudi Arabia event made the connection between the two “even more of a legend.”
