Tyson, worth the Fury?

Like him or loathe him, Tyson Fury is a very popular man at the moment. He is even more popular than usual with his devoted fans, however it is with the national press that his “popularity” has really soared. Following on from the tremendous sporting achievement of dethroning Ukrainian heavyweight ruler Wladimir Klitschko on November 28, the self-professed “Gypsy King” has been in the news for all sorts of reasons.

Unfortunately very few of these are related to his boxing ability or success. He has always been an opinionated man, and probably always will be, so it is no surprise to anyone who was aware of him before last week. The recent quotes are no shock and if you trawl back through his social media accounts or interviews you can find plenty of similar views and opinions from years ago. And it is important, in this current climate of sensationalism, to remember that is exactly what these are. Without getting into a political or moral debate, surely everyone is entitled to express their opinion on any subject without being ridiculed or hung drawn and quartered. You don’t have to agree with the man but in my opinion he should be free to follow whichever faith he chooses and the recent campaign to have him removed from BBC Sports Personality of The Year borders on pathetic. If you don’t want him to win, then vote for someone else, that’s kind of how it works.

His nomination brings me onto what I originally wanted to write about. The magnitude of his achievement. In the aftermath of his victory we at BBB were really excited about the options available to him and debated a feature on potential opponents. Then the rematch clause was invoked and that matter was settled. Since then Fury has been laughably stripped of his IBF title for taking the contractually agreed rematch with the former IBF, WBA and WBO champion. I feel that he has not received anywhere near the credit or respect he deserves for his victory and it is a shame for a man who is now at the pinnacle of his profession.

I’m not going to claim I predicted what would happen or envisaged anything other than a Klitschko win. I wanted the Manchester man to do it but wasn’t confident it would happen. That has now gone a full 180◦ and I struggle to see anything other than a victory for Team Fury. During the contest in Dusseldorf, it became clear that Wlad’s naturally cautious style isn’t suited to fighting a taller, tricky opponent. He needs to adapt yet I’m not sure how he can change what he has practised for over ten years, in a matter of months. Rather than blame his loss on age or his shortcomings though, we need to give Tyson Fury the utmost respect for what was almost considered unthinkable by many.

Well done to the heavyweight champion of the world.

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