Frank Warren concerned about injury risk for Tyson Fury in WWE

As was announced on Friday, Tyson Fury is headed to WWE’s Crown Jewel event on Oct. 31 in Saudi Arabia, where he’ll participate in some form of pro wrestling match with WWE star Braun Strowman.

Reaction has been mixed on both sides. Some people are fine with it, both boxing and wrestling fans, but there are naturally boxing fans who are uptight about anything to do with fake fighting, and there are also wrestling fans who couldn’t possibly give a damn less about some untrained boxing “star” they’ve mostly never heard of in their lives taking up a spot on the show they enjoy.

But it’s going to happen, as Fury attempts to become a bigger name star in the sports and entertainment worlds.

His co-promoter Frank Warren is more or less on board, but he does have concerns about Fury potentially accidentally reopening the bad cuts he suffered in September against Otto Wallin, or suffering some other type of injury that could screw with the plans for the fighter’s boxing career, which is slated to resume next February with a rematch against Deontay Wilder.

“His profile gets bigger every time and he’s doing us promoters a real favor by going on WWE. But truthfully, I don’t like the risk of his cut opening up. Tyson’s a law unto himself. It’s risky though, no doubt about that. ‘In an ideal world I’d prefer he didn’t do it, but it’s all about the bigger picture for him. He’s a natural wrestling star.”

Warren is right to have concerns, of course. WWE is choreographed with predetermined outcomes, yes, but it’s also physical and things go wrong, especially with novices, and calling Fury a novice would be generous.

But like I said before, I imagine all will be laid out properly and executed as safely as can be done. Strowman’s a pro, and WWE are generally very good at laying out novelty stuff like this that minimizes risk as much as possible. Fury’s not going to be tasked with going out there and taking a bunch of bumps or anything.

Bottom line, as Warren clearly knows, is that Fury’s going to do as Fury wants, and Tyson’s clearly having a good time doing this. So it’s happening.