Fury: No chance I’ll win BBC vote
No sooner had Tyson Fury been added to the not-so-shortlist of candidates for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award than he said: ‘No chance.’
The 6ft 9in Gypsy King, who has just won five of the six world heavyweight belts by dethroning Wladimir Klitschko, the champion who had been invincible for a decade, added: ‘They will never let me win it because I’m too controversial and outspoken.’
Fury went on to prove that very point by demonstrating how he will never compromise, no matter what the inducement.
He revealed he had refused to sip water in his Dusseldorf stadium dressing room after springing Saturday night’s huge upset, for fear that the drink may be spiked to make him fail his drugs test. He also declared that the weigh-in
“I am just too outspoken and controversial”
had been rigged to try to make him believe he was only a pound heavier than Klitschko ‘ even though I weighed almost a stone more in my hotel bedroom an hour earlier at 18st 6lb’.
‘After the gloves and the spongy ring and the hand- wrapping,’ he said, ‘that was more of the cheating.’
Fury was equally forthright about the other British sportsmen who are the favourites to win the BBC award. He asked: ‘Has anyone else beaten a super- champion this year? Taken him out? Taken away all his belts? Who’s done what?
‘So Lewis Hamilton has won the F1 championship and Andy Murray has won the Davis Cup. Hamilton can win a race and it doesn’t mean anything. Murray can win a tennis match and lose a tennis match and still have his popularity. But who beat Wladimir Klitschko, the man they said couldn’t be beaten? Answer: Tyson ‘Too Fast’ Fury.
‘There’s no point me thinking about it. I’m not bothered. If I don’t win any award, I’ve never expected to win one anyway.’
Fury remains defiant in his determination to be his own man, no matter how outraged the reaction.
Asked, after all the criticism of some of his more extreme religious convictions, if he saw himself as a role model for kids he said: ‘ If they’re looking to become yesman, then no. But if they’re looking for someone to teach them the reality of life then I’m their man. And I have the platform now.
‘If I say the colour is purple but it’s green, then it’s purple because I’m the heavyweight champion of the world.’
Fury was talking upon his return to Lancashire from his extraordinary victory in the 55,000-capacity Esprit Arena in Dusseldorf.
Explaining why he returned to his hotel dehydrated after his unanimous points victory over Klitschko, he said: ‘We had good information telling us not to drink anything in the dressing room. I refused to touch water or anything because I was nervous I might end up testing positive for drugs.’
He also revealed that even after the row about which gloves he would wear, which put the fight at risk until he was promised a pair to his liking, he ‘still didn’t get the gloves I wanted but I decided to go ahead anyway’.
of the strange reading at the weigh-in, Fury said: ‘Not only was my weight well out but Wlad wore lifts in his heels to make him seem taller. But once we got in the ring it became obvious that I was the much bigger man.’
Pointing to the WBA, IBF, WBO, IBO and Ring magazine belts on the table in front of him, he said: ‘It was like I was a mongoose who had to go into the cobra’s nest and steal all the eggs.’
Fury, his uncle- cum- trainer Peter and his father John are more riled by the attempts to play down his major upset by casting Klitschko as a has-been, even though the Ukrainian is expected to invoke his contract clause for a re-match.
The Mancunian giant would be happy for that bout to take place back in Germany.
Fury said: ‘ Wlad is a great champion. Anybody who tries to dilute my achievement is just plain bitter or jealous.’