BY GABRIEL PRINCEWILL
Tyson Fury’s heavyweight championship victory in Germany against Wladimir Klitschko has effectively brought the curtains down on the illustrious ten year epic reign of the Ukranian. Fury, who was the betting underdog, imposed his will on the former dominant champion, leaving the latter clueless and bewildered for much of the fight. With this victory, the undisputed heavyweight belt has come back to Britain for the first time in eleven years since Lennox Lewis vacated the belts in 2004. The defeat is bitter for Klitschko who tweeted his fans to say ”man I’m suffering. I can’t believe I actually lost”.
CONFIDENCE
Fury had exuded an assured level of confidence throughout the build up to this fight, always affirmative in his conviction he would emerge the victor. He said all along that he would not continue if he lost. He would have to announce to the world he is ”a fraud” in the event of defeat to the champion. Those words seemed like mere rhetoric without substance at the time, but the basis of his confidence was proved right in hindsight. Not many would have given any credence to his claims or contemplated the possibility that this mouthy unconventional human being would outsmart and neutralize the tools of an athletically built champion who had held the division captive for donkey years and was on his way to cementing a historical legacy in the guinness book of records as one of the longest reigning champions in the division of the big boys.
HUGE
A huge specimen at 6ft 9 inches, Fury thanked Jesus for his victory, adding that God gave him the win.
”I frustrated him (Klitscko) and showed him stuff he had never seen before. Ask and you shall receive. I asked for a child, and God have me a child. I asked for a win, and God gave me a win. I am only a man, but the glory goes to the lord. I want to thank the Lord Jesus Christ, my rock and salvation, for this victory, a jubilant Fury said after the fight. He(Klitschko) has been a great champion, but every dog has its day. Everybody wrote me off tonight, all the Sky team said no, only 19 of my family believed me. In the mighty name of Jesus, I proved them all wrong”.
After the fight, Klitschko confirmed his plans to implement their contractual rematch clause, but in reality he has lost the air of supremacy that accompanied his prolific conquest at the apex of the sports highest weight class. It is hard to envisage Klitschko reversing the fate of defeat that befell him in his own backyard before 55,000 strong crowd, most of whom were partisan followers of his. Klitschko did what he could but did not prevail. The script has been written and he lost. The dawn of a new era beckons now that the prestigious heavyweight title belts have changed hands. Klitschko has been a dignified champion in his long reign in the division, but this landslide defeat surely spells the end of a remarkable career that came crashing on him in Germany. His christmas Turkey will be bitter, whilst Fury will merry with Champagne and over £3m in the bank.
UNINSPIRING
The fight itself was not particularly inspiring, but the challenger dominated most of it, asserting his jab, and using his unorthodox stance to puzzle the champion and dictate the structure of the fight. It was the first time either man had been in the ring with someone of comparable attributes and ability. A first real test for Fury, which he passed. And though most observers before the fight considered it would be the biggest upset in history should Fury win, I adjudged this view to be misguided and expressed this in our preview for the fight. Fury’s size, technical ability, and supreme confidence gave him a huge chance of victory from the start, even though Klitschko was rightly considered the favorite. The new champion should not have been so brazenly written off, but his loud mouth allied to his limited experience prompted the degree of pessimism that attended the collective understimation of his chances by the media and the public alike. His father was quick to shout to the television crew and the press row that they were all wrong.
LONGEVITY
A pertinent question is what this victory means for heavyweight boxing and British boxing as a whole. The quality of a champion is customarily determined by their longevity on the thrown. The longer a champion defends his belts successfully, the greater a champion he is. However, in the interim period, the public image of a world champion is integral to the level of popularity he enjoys on the throne. ”Its a new era, and I want to be the most charismatic champion since Mohammed Ali Fury’s professional career has been laden with indiscretions of epic proportions which need not be outlined this piece. He sees most of it as comprising a required level of entertainment, but he frankly goes over the top sometimes. He is generally perceived by the British public to be unintelligible in his presentation, something that needs to be redressed if he is to become an admirable role model as champion.
In the meantime, Tyson Fury has defied the odds to beat Wladimir Klitschko, and mouth watering fights against the likes of American WBC champion, Deontey Wilder, lie ahead in 2016 once Fury wins the rematch against Wladimir Klitscho next year. Eye of media congratulate Fury on his marvelous victory, and hope he represents the belt with dignity, honor and integrity.
