Manchester: Former world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury forced Sefer Seferi to quit after four rounds of a comfortable comeback here Saturday.
The Englishman ended a two-year seven-month exile with an untroubled win over Albania’s Switzerland-based Seferi in a non-title bout at the Manchester Arena.
Fury extended his unbeaten record to 26 wins, 19 by knockout, while Seferi suffered his second defeat in 25 fights. After the layoff, during which he put on eight stones and suffered from depression, Fury showed he is still in business but it was not fluent until he began swatting his considerably smaller and lighter opponent around the ring in the fourth round.
Seferi was seven inches shorter and nearly five stones lighter than Fury, who used his reach and height to ensure there was never any danger of an upset.
Fury, 29, showed few glimpses of the impressive movement around the ring he did in is previous fight when he upset Wladimir Klitschko on points for the World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Organisation (WBO) titles in November 2015.
It was not always pretty from Fury, but it allowed the 6ft 9in Englishman to shed some of the ring rust before moving on to harder tests. Fury’s first decent bit of work came at the end of the first round, when he landed a quick combination, but in the second referee Phil Edwards told him off for his conduct.
Seferi did a good job of surviving and Fury struggled to lay a glove on him in the second. Seferi showed some ambition in the third but Fury picked him off with his long arms and heavy blows in the fourth. Fury was into stride and Seferi was pulled out of the fight before the fifth.