Tyson is ready to finish his old pal’s career
Fury to show no mercy as he sets sights on Usyk
TYSON FURY will do everything in his gigantic powers to put Dereck Chisora into deep freeze tonight, yet admits he will feel a pang of remorse as and when that knockout is inflicted.
For Fury it is an essential requirement to batter away his old friend’s renewed challenge, so as to cement a spring super-fight against rival champion Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed world heavyweight title.
The tinge of melancholy is rooted in their rivalry over the past decade and has been brought to the surface by Fury’s realisation that victory for him in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium may come in Chisora’s final fight.
Fury says: ‘It will be a fantastic night, a tremendous fight, a great spectacle for the 60 or 70 thousands fans and I will be buzzing. But deep down I will have a little sadness inside me as well. Because this will probably be the end of Dereck Chisora. For me, that will be a pretty sad end to our rivalry over more than a decade.’
The Gypsy King, 34, has been his usual flamboyant salesman self throughout the build-up but on the eve of this defence of his WBC crown against Chisora ( right), he found time for nostalgia.
‘I remember when Dereck was boxing’s hot, young guy and I was even younger,’ he says. ‘We were two new pros with a point to prove. He was rated No 1 contender by the WBO and had a very, very big future.
‘At 22, I became the youngest British heavyweight champion when I beat him the first time. It seems like no time ago. Where have those 11 years gone? I’m world champion now. This is his second world title shot. Like Dereck I love and live for fighting. It’s the addiction to competition which is so exciting. I don’t want to suddenly find myself retired.
‘I dreamed a dream a long time ago. The dream became reality. Now the dream is my happy everyday life.
‘Sometimes I sit back and think about the Wizard of Oz, with Dorothy on the yellow brick road trying to find her way home and in the end it’s only a dream. I hope that never happens to me. I’m really enjoying my dream and
I don’t want to wake up and I’m still 22 with a world full of debts and worries and love handles.’
There is always another surprising layer of Fury to be peeled away. He warms to this latest, romantic analogy by adding: ‘In a way this is a bit of a fairy story which Dereck and I will look back on down the years to come. This is a fantastic sunset fight for him. If this is his final fight it is for the world heavyweight title and he is getting paid millions for it.’ He adds this riposte to criticism that a third fight with a veteran coming up 39 this month who he has beaten twice already and has 12 losses on his record is not befitting of the occasion: ‘What’s not to love? We are sharing an epic trilogy together. Dereck is always in epic fights. He has given British boxing fans some fantastic nights. ‘By fighting relentlessly against top opposition he has become a cult figure and should be given full respect. He will come to fight and together we will give the public another occasion to remember. Then move on.’
Fury expects that to be in the direction of Ukraine war hero Usyk, who is flying from Kyiv to be at ringside. Then onward to monthly mega-fights in the historic tradition of Joe Louis, not only at Wembley Stadium but around the world in the footsteps of Muhammad Ali.
To do so as the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis, who zoomed into the conversation from his Caribbean home to predict a stoppage then for a succession to the throne he has occupied for a decade.
Not that Fury is taking any or all of that for granted. As he says: ‘This is heavyweight boxing. Anything can happen. One punch can unravel the best-laid plans and Dereck is a heavy hitter’
Fury, however, is in the habit of getting up and hitting back even harder. There is too much at stake for him not to do so again, in the unlikely event that proves necessary.