Fury’s greatest weapon could be his volatility
Deontay Wilder is going to lose the trash talking to Tyson Fury. The World Boxing Council champion could ask all the great pre-fight sledgers of the American ring for tips and would still fall short of the “Gypsy King” from Lancashire before they fight in Los Angeles on Dec 1.
Fury (below) has promised to “smash [Wilder’s] teeth in” when the two meet in the Staples Centre. Wilder will have met many rough types in his career but Fury brings a level of truculence even Muhammad Ali would have found challenging.
But when Fury claims Wilder seems scared of him, instinct suggests Wilder is probably more struck by his opponent’s volatility than the power at his disposal.
Fury’s CV includes three years out of the ring, huge weight gain, rapid weight loss and two minor wins. That may yet be enough to beat Wilder, but the WBC champion holds most of the big cards. Wilder says of Fury: “He needs to meditate on his situation because he will feel pain he’s never felt before.” Fury is not coming over as a fan of meditation.
who were saying, in effect: “If this is the new tone, we’ll go along with it – and don’t expect us to behave like angels if nobody else is.” When Reed gave the audience a bit back, he was lacerated by Butch Harmon, the coach and TV pundit.
The mass cheering of bad shots – especially into the water – is another new-ish feature, and made Paris feel at times like the Ashes (no bad thing, you cry). The drive behind these changed viewing habits is undeniably British, because we have cornered the market in “zany” sports tourism, so that most of the drinkers performing the Toure dance, with Fleetwood and Molinari replacing Yaya and Kolo, are from the country that has just voted to leave Europe while wanting to retain the bits they like (eg, a winning golf team).
This is not a lament for decorum or the old ways, or a moan about people enjoying themselves. The point is that sport and social media go a lot further in bed together these days than Fleetwood and Molinari did for that spoof.