Frank Maloney blasts ‘Chicken Fury’ for vacating titles

Frank Maloney Promotions Press Release

DAVID Price’s promoter Frank Maloney has blasted Tyson Fury for vacating his British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles and preventing a fight against Price.

Price became the mandatory challenger to Fury’s British belt when he won the English heavyweight title with a 73 second knockout of John McDermott and it had been hoped the fight would be made though Fury, dismissed as “Chicken Fury” by Maloney, has disappointed Team Price by vacating his titles.

“Chicken Fury was going to get the biggest pay of his career to date, and has let himself, his fans, his traveling community and most of all the boxing world down,” said Maloney.

“This is why people are turning against the sport I love and again politics have ruled what a boxer does.

“The BBBofC (British Boxing Board of Control) have purse bids for a reason and this fight generated more interest than normal with all the top promoters in the UK bidding for it.

“[Mick] Hennessy sent out a statement this morning saying that Fury will be pursuing World titles but the nearest Fury will get to winning a world title is having the same nick name as former WBC heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe who was christened Chicken Bowe for also clucking away from another British Olympian.

Both Maloney and 2008 Olympic bronze medallist Price had been confident about his ability to defeat Fury, as he did before as an amateur, but it appears the Liverpudlian will now have to wait for the chance to do so.

“Chicken Fury will regret the day he gave up his belts and the chance to earn his biggest pay to date,” Maloney added.

“I don’t believe Hennessy or Channel 5 had the financial backing to put this fight on and this is why they have pulled out.

“As a promoter you take a risk when it comes to purse bids, you can bid too high and make a massive loss or too low and stand the chance that your fighter will fight on another promotion and TV channel.

We submitted our bid and crossed our fingers like all the other promoters did, but Hennessy or Chicken Fury could not take the gamble and have clucked away instead.

“This is a real disappointment for us all. A show that all heavyweight boxing fans wanted to see gets taken away before any chance of a bid was accepted. Why vacate when you were offered more money than your promoters were prepared to pay!? This is simply something Maloney Promotions do not understand.”