Tyson Fury Returns July 7, Opponent To Be Named

Former British and Commonwealth and current Irish heavyweight champ Tyson Fury will make his ring return on July 7 in Blackpool, according to World Boxing News, with an opponent to be named.

Fury (18-0, 13 KO) will be televised on Channel 5 again, going more or less head-to-head with Wladimir Klitschko's fight against Tony Thompson in Switzerland, as well as Kell Brook's fight against Carson Jones, which will be televised on Sky Sports.

The 23-year-old Fury has become quite a TV star in the UK, drawing strong numbers on the broadcast station. But boxing fans are starting to question Fury's development again. Last year's win over Dereck Chisora was good, but his trio of victories since then over Nicolai Firtha, Neven Pajkic, and Martin Rogan have been predictable and frankly a bit weak. The fact that he vacated his British/Commonwealth belts instead of fighting David Price was defensible from promoter Mick Hennessy's standpoint, but the general public seemed to take that as Fury ducking Price, and it wasn't good press.

Really, it's tough to keep seeing Fury as a top ten heavyweight if he doesn't face someone better than the Firtha/Pajkic/Rogan trio, but it's also tough to see Fury take a bigger challenge than that. Audley Harrison just won this past weekend, and he's been on about a fight with Fury for a while now, though he may also be an option for new British champ David Price.

And hell, Matt Skelton looked pretty "great" last time out beating "prospect" Tom Dallas.

As for an Irish heavyweight he could face, there's always Kevin McBride.

My point is, don't expect the "world class" opponent that Hennessy is always going on about.