Gypsy King decision to wrestle is genius
WHEN WWE came looking for a boxer to spice up their show, they certainly picked the right man for the job in Tyson Fury. They have got the biggest showman of them all.
There has been plenty of discussion over Tyson’s decision to step into the ring with Braun Strowman at the Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia – but for me it is genius by Fury and his team.
As you have seen throughout his boxing career – turning up to press conferences as Batman, walking to the ring as Apollo Creed – this is going to be gold dust TV.
What a great way to get himself over to the American audience. It is great for his media profile, and his kids think its great, one of his sons loves the wrestling.
I can understand some people criticising it and concerns over him getting injured ahead of a Deontay Wilder rematch, especially considering he suffered a nasty cut in his last fight.
But Tyson could be walking down to the shop in this weather and slip and injure himself. You can’t live your life covered in cotton wool. These opportunities are there for him and if he injures himself before the Wilder fight, so what, the Wilder fight will still be there for him.
But these opportunities help to sell that Wilder fight as he reaches a new audience.
This type of thing has been going on for years, Muhammed Ali did it, We have had Floyd Mayweather and even our own Wayne Rooney giving one of them a slap one year.
If there is ridicule, it is mainly because those people didn’t think about doing it first. Over the last two years, Tyson’s life has been very intense to get from where he was to now. He has lost a lot of weight, has been in the gym a lot, overcome the mental health issues he had and is now fighting back on the world stage.
He is feeling good about himself, and that’s great to see, and this is something he will use to occupy his mind and also give him some switch-off time from the rigours of boxing training.
This is all good, positive stuff for Tyson. It’s all about the Gypsy King and his brand and he needs to make the most of it because it doesn’t last forever. I have to say, I was honoured to become the first to be named Boxing News Trainer of the Year for the second
There has been plenty of discussion over Tyson’s decision to enter the ring – but, for me, it’s genius Joe Gallagher
time last month. There is no bigger accolade than being acknowledged by your fellow peers. And we completed a double with Callum Smith named Fighter of the Year.
I remember the first time I won it I went on stage and saw Barry McGuigan, Alan Minter, John Conteh in the crowd and I fluffed everything, said thanks and walked off!
You never know if you will get another opportunity to be up for awards like this, so I wanted to make it about the people who have been around us these last 12 months so I took my mum down and the people who work with us in the gym and we took everyone on stage.
Our Academy is now also up for a This Is Manchester awards, and myself too. So I am hugely proud of what we are doing. But we are back in the gym now and back to work.