By Gabriel Princewill-
Tyson Fury and Deontey Wilder exchanged insults in their final press conference, as both unbeaten heavyweights expressed reasons to undermine the other’s chances of victory this Saturday.
It is the biggest fight to date for each of the two, expected to captivate the imagination of the viewing public. On the face of it, there is enough reason for both A list fighters to be confident of victory, no matter what one thinks of the other’s mental state of confidence.
Conventional practise at elite level of heavyweight championship boxing in an age of sports therapy and psychologists is for two prize fighters to be absorbed in their self belief of a triumphant outcome. At this level, both men are reasonably confident, yet question each other’s self belief.
Fury’s confidence in victory is based on his extra size, his unarguable boxing skills, and the conviction he was robbed of victory last time despite being out of the ring for nearly three years after rising from the canvas twice.
Wilder’s confidence on the other hand is based on his power and the fact he floored Fury twice in their first encounter. Interestingly, they both appear to dismiss each other’s chances of victory irrespective of the tough call on this fight for many boxing pundits.
”You’ve come to get your ass whopped, pxxxx. Look how small you are, you midget,’ Fury told the champion. At 6 ft 7 1/2 inches Wilder cannot be factually described as a midget, but this was Fury alluding to the disparity in size between the two heavyweights.
‘You were the one on the ground. I was the one standing on top of you. You ever heard of David and Goliath? You know that story of what happened? It’s going to happen to you.’
Fury questions whether Wilder actually believes in the story of David and Goliath and Wilder insists: ‘You’re not getting up.’ A defiant Fury responds: ‘We’ll see. You couldn’t keep me down when I was fxxxxx. When I was training like a dosser, you couldn’t keep me down then. You definitely can’t keep me down now.’
Fury proceeds to call Wilder a dosser before mockingly saying: ” hold onto my belt for me.’ Wilder mocks him by saying: ‘Hold onto that invisible belt you have. We’ll see. Timber! Timber! Like I told you before. Timber and it’s going to happen again,’ Wilder says.
LAUGH
Fury responds: ‘I’m going to punch your face in and laugh at ya. You couldn’t even beat me last time. Three years out the ring and I still beat ya. You had to rob me and you still only got a draw.’ ‘I came to your show and now you work for me.’
MURDER SCENE
Wilder then says: ‘I’m going to stand over your body like a murder scene and be the detective standing over it. I promise you”. After a stare down descended into a distasteful pushing and shoving, Wilder taunted Fury over his very public battles with addiction and bipolar disorder that prompted his 31-month exit from the sport and the surrender of the championship belts he won from Wladimir Klitschko in 2015.
Responding to a claim by Fury to have been responsible for bringing the American into big time boxing, Wilder said; “If he does, I’ll slap him.”
Addressing Fury, he said:
“Don’t you ever forget that when I found you, you were strung out on coke. You were like a big house, contemplating killing yourself. Don’t you ever forget who brought you to big-time boxing. I brought you back, dragged you back, I put food on your table for your family to eat and I’m doing it again for a second time.
I’m the one who sells the pay-per-view and tickets. They come to see me.” Fury responded: “And that’s the man you take on? A man thinking about killing himself? You thought you were getting an easy victory, didn’t you? Well it didn’t work out: I came back and kicked your arse all over.”
The loser of Saturday’s fight will be entitled to call for a contractual third fight later in the year.