Tyson Fury reacts to Otto Wallin critics

Tyson Fury hits back at critics about Otto Wallin

Ahead of their impending September 14 showdown in Las Vegas, Tyson Fury (28-0-1) has come under fire from fight fans for his choice of opponent, Otto Wallin (20-0) .

This will be the fifth defense of the lineal crown for Briton Fury, who upset long-reigning champion Wladimir Klitschko in November 2015 to claim the heavyweight supremacy. His previous defence was a second-round destruction of unbeaten heavyweight, Tom Schwarz (24-1) on his US debut in May, and now he heads back to the States to face another hungry, unbeaten, world-ranked fighter, although some fans and critics have not been overjoyed with the choice of opponent.

The unbeaten Swede is relatively unknown to the wider public, but 'The Gypsy King' reacted to the critics by saying, "Anyone who wants to criticise Otto Wallin, please take a punch off him in the face then come and tell me how it feels.

"The guy is 6'6" and ranked number four with the WBA."

Top Rank head honcho Bob Arum also backed up what Tyson Fury has been saying when he told fight fans not to underestimate Wallin .

He tweeted the following message on August 13, "Fans who think Fury has an easy fight on his hands against Otto Wallin are mistaken. The undefeated Wallin is a hell of a fighter. I am old enough to remember another Swede - Ingemar Johansson - who stunned the world when he knocked out Floyd Patterson at Yankee Stadium in 1959."

According to Tyson's trainer, Ben Davison, they wanted Kubrat Pulev but he refused and an offer was sent to Alexander Povetkin, but he opted to face Tyson's cousin Hughie instead.

The first name on their list was disgraced drug cheat Jarrell Miller, but he wasn’t going to get his licence in time for September. Team Fury also looked at Trevor Bryan, but he signed to fight Manuel Charr.

Davison explained, "You’ve got Al Haymon [at] PBC; you’ve got Top Rank, DAZN with Joshua and that. They all want to keep their heavyweights for who they’ve got. Adam Kownacki, he’s with PBC. Obviously [Anthony] Joshua and [Andy] Ruiz [Jr] are having their rematch. It was difficult. Luis Ortiz and Deontay Wilder [are having a rematch].”

“It’s no secret that Tyson and Deontay are looking to fight in the early part of next year. So it wasn’t the be all and end all because the big fights are around the corner.”

Otto Wallin is the WBA #4, currently unbeaten in 21 fights, one of those was a 'No Contest', with 13 KOs. He is a southpaw who stands at 6’5” with a 78” reach and is also ranked at IBF #11, IBO #16 and WBC #30. He is managed by Zachary Levy and promoted by Dmitriy Salita, both from New York. His career highlight was in April 2018 when he outpointed his countryman Adrian Granat for the EBU European Union heavyweight title.

He is relatively unknown to most boxing fans because of his bad luck trying to crack America. His US debut in April against Nick Kisner ended in a no contest when his opponent was cut in the first round. He then planned to fight BJ Flores last month, but more bad luck struck when his opponent was not ‘medically cleared to compete’ just days before their scheduled bout.

He'll finally get his name in lights when he faces Lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in his 22nd professional contest in one month's time.

Things you didn’t know about Otto Wallin