FURY FACES A TALL ORDER
Our boy Tyson has the height advantage... but I still fear he’ll fall short
TYSON Fury expects to scale the pinnacle of his career tonight and become not only the new world heavyweight champion but a global superstar.
Should the Gods decree that he fails to beat Wladimir Klitschko, after all his big talk, he will stand before the world to ‘ admit that I’m a fraud’.
Yet even if Manchester’s giant Gypsy King does defy the odds and usurp the longreigning monarch of the prize-ring, he will not celebrate because the sense of anti-climax in the moments after that achievement will plunge him into depression.
Fury laid his complex personality bare for all to see on the eve of his appointment with destiny in the 55,000- seater Esprit football stadium.
In an outpouring as tortured as it was brutally frank, he put his future and his fate tonight in the hands of the Lord.
He also addressed the question which always hangs over Klitschko. How great, really, is the 39-year- old Ukrainian who now stands behind only the iconic Joe Louis in terms of longevity as world heavyweight champion?
The bookmakers and commentators are unanimous in predicting another supremely professional victory for Klitschko.
While Fury acknowledges the scale of his task, he views his opponent through a prism which gives him hope: ‘Wladimir has to be respected after so long at the top but in terms of sporting greatness he is not a Messi or Ronaldo.
‘Mike Tyson ranks up there with the superstars of the football world. But not Wlad. He is artificial. He is like a bottle of waterr left standing on a table. He never changes.
‘Even the Germans are sick of watching him. They like to get drunk and go wild but the Ukrainians are different. He has dragged the heavyweight championship under water a bit. A plastic German.
‘He’s not that well known outside Germany and Ukraine. He’s a manufactured fighter but I’m a natural which is why I will beat him. And when I do I will become a global phenomenon, with my personality, my boxing style and the way I am.’ God willing, that is. ‘This may sound ludicrous,’ says Fury, ‘ but this fight is out of my hands now. Physically it’s in my fists but the outcome has already been scripted. I’ve done my bit by preparing to be my best. I’ve known since I first laid eyes on Wlad that I can beat him. If I am useful to the Lord, He will give me victory. If not, I will lose. Simple.’
Fury’s judgment of Klitschko is somewhat harsh on the man who has dominated heavyweight boxing for a decade but he finds colourful, more complimentary ways of expressing his view.
‘Wlad is Superman,’ he says, ‘but I am Kryptonite. Because his legs wobble all over the place and he goes down when he gets hit on the chops, he has learned to protect his jaw. He has turned that chin into the city of Troy, with its high walls. But that city’s defence was breached by brains and I am his Trojan Horse.’
That said, he reverts to using what he terms ‘the hurtful truth in which everything is black and white when I hold nothing back’.
Klitschko has admitted to being an egotist who admires himself in the mirror and Fury says: ‘He may look like a supermodel from half a mile away with the make-up but look at the difference between a photograph taken 12 years ago and one taken today. He’s an old man. Let’s face it, if at 27 I can’t beat a 39-year- old man then there’s no point continuing. Of course he has punching power but the art is not getting hit. If I wanted I could come out of this fight to do a catwalk show without a mark on my face.
‘So if I do get caught by Wlad then I will be a fool and deserve to lose. But ego is the downfall of man. I can fool everyone with my smiles so nobody can tell what I’m really thinking. But you can’t fool God. He knows what’s in my mind. If on Judgment Day He says I was just trying to fool everybody and tells me down I go to the other place, now that really would be a helluva setback.
‘ But if the big fella upstairs doesn’t want me to have what I want this Saturday night then I won’t be upset. Although after all my talk I would have to stand up and admit to you all that I’d been a fraud. I know everyone expects me to get bladdered by Wlad, or run out of steam after a couple of rounds, or lose a wide points decision.
‘But I’m not here for the pay cheque, to take a million home to Lancaster. Not here for the fame or the glory. I started in boxing to become the best and now is the pinnacle of my career. There is nothing bigger than this. The 55,000 in the stadium. The hundreds of millions around the world.
‘I’m here to prove that a man who is supposed to be unbeatable can be beaten by me.’
Once that is done, he says, from Sunday morning ‘ boxing will become a distant memory’.
He explains: ‘I’m already sick and tired of talking about this fight. At
the minute I win I will be flying on the ceiling but then I will come crashing to the floor. Nothing could be as high as winning the world title so it will be followed by depression. I will attend the postfight press conference and then my talking will stop. Partly because I will be murder to be around. At home I usually lead a normal life with my wife and children. But for 10 days people should stay away from me. Really, I should be locked away in a room.
‘Anyway, how would I celebrate? I don’t drink or go out any more. What would be the point of blowing money on a fourteen grand steak dinner?
‘After 10 days I will start enjoying being world champion and look forward to all the big fights to come.’
Can he pull off one of the major upsets in ring history?
Klitschko says: ‘There is a lot of pressure in big-time boxing matches like this one. I always have to handle the pressure. Can Fury handle the pressure? I don’t think so.’
On the evidence of his career thus far, albeit undefeated, it is difficult to conceive of a Tyson victory.
Peter Fury, his uncle and trainer, says: ‘You will see a different Tyson.’ And without doubt he has never before been in such prime physical condition.
But although I expect him to make a Herculean effort and spring some surprises in the early rounds, his best hope seems to be that like many an ageing champion before him, Klitschko suddenly feels his age on this one huge night.
Unless that happens, much as the English heart would pound for the upset, the head sees Klitschko prevailing yet again, with a late stoppage, perhaps in the 10th round.
Klitschko v Fury will be televised live tonight on Sky Sports Box Office.