5 Sensible Opponents For Tyson Fury on August 1

Following his laborious win over Arslanbek Makhmudov back in April, Tyson Fury has announced that he wants another tune-up fight before his proposed megafight with long-time rival Anthony Joshua later in the year.

The fight is expected to take place on August 1 – but who should ‘The Gypsy King’ take on in his return to the ring? Given the low level of AJ’s opponent, we’d expect Fury to take on a similarly soft touch.

Today, we’ll take a look at five fighters who we feel could be sensible picks to fill this role. Ideally, Fury wants an opponent who can give him rounds, but isn’t likely to spring an upset.

David Spilmont

A career journeyman, David Spilmont’s stock rose last time out when he surprised Jordan Thompson in a brutal encounter that saw him stop the former Cruiserweight world title challenger in seven rounds.

While this was a solid win for the Frenchman, Fury will have no trouble at all with him. Just a few years ago, he was knocked out by Alen Babic of all people – this is as risk-free of a fight as it gets.

However, for once, this is a good thing. No-one wants to see a fight between AJ and Fury derailed at this stage, outside of a few sadomasochistic enjoyers of schadenfreude.

Jeamie TKV

Putting Jeamie TKV in a position such as this may be unsavoury to the man himself, but he needs to rethink and rebuild after being demolished by Richard Riakpohre in his last fight.

This would be another loss on his record, as there is very little in his arsenal that could trouble Fury, but he is a durable fighter who knows how to look after himself. Furthermore, at this stage of his career, he cannot afford to be picky with who he fights.

We mean no disrespect to TKV – we have always seen him as an underrated fighter. Yes, his style is tedious to watch and he has an uninspiring record of 9-3, but his extensive amateur background and solid win over Frazer Clarke last year shouldn’t be brushed to the side.

Otto Wallin

This one makes plenty of sense at surface level. Otto Wallin gave Fury an absolute nightmare when they came to blows in 2019 – ‘The Gypsy King’ has plenty of reasons to grant him a rematch from this perspective.

Nevertheless, when you take a closer look, Wallin’s decline is evident. Despite registering a great win over Murat Gassiev in 2023, he has put forth deeply lacklustre performances in his follow-up bouts against Anthony Joshua and Dereck Chisora. Joshua stopped him in five rounds, whilst Chisora battered him from pillar to post over the course of 12.

General audiences are aware of Fury’s history with the big Swede. That should be enough to sell the fight – but we’d expect Fury to make pretty light work of him this time around.

Senad Gashi

Senad Gashi falls neatly into the ‘durable, unthreatening journeyman’ category. He will give Fury the rounds he needs ahead of the Joshua fight, but he certainly won’t give him much of a challenge.

Standing at just 6ft tall, we’re not even sure if Gashi can reach Fury’s head, let alone hurt him. Jokes aside, Gashi has only been stopped once in his professional career, all the way back in 2018 against Carlos Takam.

We initially selected Kevin Lerena for this spot, but Lerena has a fight at the weekend – we’ll have to see how that plays out first and foremost.

Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller

Let’s be honest – this fight would be worth it for the press conferences alone. A loud, boisterous personality with no end of creative insults, Fury and Jarrell Miller’s shared interviews would be worth charging PPV for (don’t get any ideas, Frank).

As for the fight itself, we struggle to see how Miller could pose much of a threat to Fury. He might have some success in the clinch, being a strong, heavy fighter, but he is glacially slow.

Fury has slowed down himself over the last few years, but he is still much, much faster than Miller ever was. Like many of the other fighters on this list, Miller is extremely tough – we’d certainly expect him to go the distance.