Fury: I’m going to smash Pianeta’s face in
Briton must beat Italian to set up Wilder fight Las Vegas date could be announced next week
Tyson Fury must do three things tonight against former world-title challenger Francesco Pianeta: win, get rounds under his belt and show focus in dealing with a major occasion outdoors in front of 25,000 fans at Belfast’s Windsor Park.
There is real pressure, yet Fury is showing no signs of being affected. The former world champion, returning for the second time after 30 months away due to a drug ban, weighed in at 18st 6lb yesterday, and promptly ignored his opponent, indulging instead in a verbal slanging match with the American Deontay Wilder, the World Boxing Council heavyweight champion, who will work as an analyst with the broadcasters Showtime from ringside. The two were separated by security guards.
If he dispatches Pianeta handily, Fury is likely to head to Las Vegas in November to take on the “Bronze Bomber” for the WBC crown. The Daily Telegraph understands that there are plans to unveil the superfight as early as next week.
A fight with Wilder, who is unbeaten and the most dangerous puncher in the division, would provide the perfect narrative and a route to the biggest fight in British boxing history against compatriot Anthony Joshua, now the holder of the three world title belts Fury took from Wladimir Klitschko in Dusseldorf in Nov 2015.
That was a long time ago, and Fury faces intense scrutiny in this contest. The Briton has been mobbed in Belfast this week wherever he has gone. But now he will have to deal with the pressure of the occasion, the expectation, and what lies ahead.
There will be, moreover, a major test for his young trainer, Ben Davison, who has said all the right things, and made all the right moves in getting Fury back to his fighting weight.
Davison said he would “like to see Fury get rounds in the bag” to prove his readiness for the
American challenge.
Fury looks right, appears mentally focused, and is relishing the task ahead. Sparring partners have revealed that Fury has not been wearing a headguard, and that he is remarkably elusive.
The conventional wisdom is that Fury needs rounds in an actual fight to find his groove again; the man himself, typically, talks against the grain.
“I’m not really interested in rounds. I’m going to try and smash Pianeta’s face right in,” Fury said. “Put a statement out there. Cut him up and drop him. Then I’ll go to Las Vegas and spank that Yank all over it. Take that belt and bring it home.”
He will need to be at his elusive best against Wilder, who launches marauding attacks on opponents. For all his bravado and self-belief, Fury can ill-afford to look beyond Pianeta as an opponent.
“If I can’t beat Pianeta, I’m not going to beat Wilder,” Fury said. “I can’t overlook him because if I’m looking to fight the best in the division I’ve got to beat Pianeta. If I can’t beat him with one hand tied behind my back I must be a bum too. Me and Wilder’s been brewing for a long time. He’s fought nobody. We will finally get the opportunity to prove that providing I beat Pianeta.”
Fury needs to establish his jab early, not get caught, and display the kind of boxing skills the industry knows he possesses. If he does so, Fury ought to stop Pianeta between rounds five and seven.