WHY THIS MAN WILL DESTROY FURY’S DREAM
JEFF POWELL’S BIG FIGHT PREDICTION FRANK BRUNO AND MARTIN SAMUEL
JOURNEY’S end or resurrection? Pain or glory? Sudden death for 10 seconds or passion-play miracle in 12 rounds? The options for Tyson Fury are stark in contrast, but tantalising in possibility.
Deontay Wilder, the mightiest puncher on earth, is chomping at the bit to detonate that dynamite right hand which has separated all his opponents from their senses for that unforgiving count.
Fury the giant English matador is coming to bewitch America’s raging bull with his magical cape of many shades and skills.
To the victor, the WBC world heavyweight championship held by Wilder for almost four years.
Yet there is even more at stake for these two men in the Staples Center here tonight than the supreme prize in boxing.
For Fury the Gypsy King, does this journey go on with a second coming as world champion to help him convince fellow mental health sufferers the world over that they too can overcome?
For Wilder the Bronze Bomber, the burning desire is to gain the recognition and admiration in the United States which has curiously eluded him for so long and to restore the prestige of heavyweight boxing’s distant golden age.
These are lofty ambitions and Fury, who has shaved off his sixmonth growth of beard for the occasion, says: ‘The legend is back, so the time has come to re-present myself as clean-cut. I look 15 years younger and my wife fancies me even more.
‘More importantly, much as I do not want to lose this fight and my unbeaten record, I am boxing less for the title than to inspire the countless people around the world who are in the same mental despair as I was and are giving up. As the guy making this great comeback from the bottomless pit, I am giving them hope.
‘It would be nice to put the only belt I’ve never worn in my collection with all the others but winning this title does not mean as much to me as being a champion for all those thousands of people.’
Wilder, who will be revealing a newly minted golden- crowned version of the mask he wears to enter the ring, says: ‘This is the fight I’ve been waiting for to put heavyweight boxing back on its throne. I must deliver my usual knockout service to get the attention of America and the respect of the world.
‘I am also continuing the fight against racism which black people have been fighting for 400 years.’
Lofty sentiments, from both, in contrast to their screaming fracas at the last media conference which Fury admits was ‘disgraceful’.
He picks up the theme of putting boxing back on its pedestal when he says this of a night which will bring out the Hollywood stars: ‘It doesn’t mean anything to me personally, I will be concentrating on the fight. But all the celebs turning up is fantastic for the sport and great for giving all the fans who are coming a chance to see the famous.
‘It is important for boxing also that this event will be watched by thousands in the arena and millions around the world. I hope we give them an exciting fight.’
That will depend to some extent on how Fury chooses to deal with the concussive threat which Wilder brings to all his fights.
His fabled defeat of Wladimir Klitschko was the product of brilliant evasion and counterpunching, a style described by Wilder’s trainer as ‘a Rubik’s cube which we have to solve’.
Those at home in England are betting heavily on Fury replicating that night when he won the world titles which he was stripped of during nearly three years of suspension, gross weight gain and social drug problems brought on by clinical depression.
Klitschko was bewildered by Fury’s psychological goading and frustrated in the ring by his intelligent application of his brilliant talents and remarkable mobility for a 6ft 9in athlete. Wilder describes himself as ‘a very different and more deadly animal’.
That said, he weighed in some three stone lighter than Fury yesterday. The Briton tipped the scales at 18st 3lb, while Wilder was 15st 2lb. Wilder donned his mask at the weigh-in, as he and Fury kept their distance on the stage. Barbs were exchanged nonetheless, the pick being Fury’s assertion that Wilder looks in over his head.
Fury told BT Sport seconds after coming off stage: ‘He’s flapping! His a*** is flapping! He doesn’t want to be in the fight and he is getting knocked out.’
Wilder hit back: ‘My opponent in my last fight (Luis Ortiz) was way more difficult than him.’
The fight will be overlooked by a a balanced panel of judges including one Englishman, but this is America, where aggression counts. Wilder has that in abundance. He never stops punching, often from weird and unorthodox angles.
Lennox Lewis — still the most recent undisputed heavyweight king, although Fury remains the lineal champion — reminds his countryman: ‘Deontay is the only boxer with the power to knock you cold wherever he hits you on the head, not only on the chin or temple.’
Wilder — a mere 6ft 7in — has to cope with the discomfort of punching upwards for the first
time in his all-win career. But Fury has never before faced an opponent as lightning fast and mobile as himself.
Fury talks of changing tactics and going for the knockout himself. There could be benefits from boxing up close and inside against such a wild, rangy puncher but to alter at this stage of his career would be risky. The gift of intelligent movement which has served Fury so well through his undefeated career is surely his best chance of working what really would be a miracle by a fighter who spent nearly three troubled years out of the ring. The heart hopes he does pull it off, not least for his own recently restored peace of mind.
But the head insists that Wilder will hit the target with at least one of his nuclear warheads some time in the course of 12 rounds — likely around the eighth — and thereby send another knockout message to Anthony Joshua. For the sake of Fury’s continued wellbeing, I would be happy for him to prove me wrong. Wilder v Fury will be live exclusively on BT Sport Box Office for £19.95