Fury says money is his only motivation for Klitschko rematch

Fury says money is his only motivation for Klitschko rematch

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 10:03 p.m. ET

LONDON (AP) Money is Tyson Fury's only motivation heading into his rematch with Wladimir Klitschko.

The British boxer beat Klitschko by a unanimous decision in November to take the WBA, IBF and WBO belts and end the Ukrainian's nine-year reign as champion. Fury has since been stripped of the IBF belt.

The rematch will take place in Manchester on July 9.

''I've already beaten the best man there is and was. I have no motivation,'' Fury said Wednesday. ''Whoever they put in front of me I'll fight, but they've got nothing that I want ... only money.''

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Klitschko struggled to land a clean punch on Fury in the first fight in Germany.

''If he doesn't do something different, he is on for another hiding,'' Fury said in typically brash comments at his first news conference since the rematch was announced last week. ''He has to come and try and fight. He couldn't fight me first time with his `A' game so he won't on his second.''

Fury will be fighting in his home city. Old Trafford, the home of English soccer club Manchester United, was a potential option, but that venue couldn't be secured.

''It wasn't very important for the fight to be in Manchester, but it was very important that I wasn't going back to Germany,'' Fury said. ''I wouldn't go back. End of. I wouldn't get a decision. It's in England. Wherever it was, I wasn't bothered.''

Fury said he will turn his attention to Anthony Joshua, the Briton who captured the IBF belt by beating American fighter Charles Martin on Saturday, after the rematch against Klitchsko. Fury lost the IBF title for failing to make a mandatory defense.

Fury didn't have kind words to say about Joshua.

''I thought he looked like a pumped-up weightlifter, out of his mind on drugs,'' Fury said of Joshua. ''He fought an American who came to lay down and had as much fight in him as that glass of water right there. Zero.

''The fight I have to worry about is Wlad because he is 10 times the man of any of them world champions.''

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