By Gabriel Princewill-
Tyson Fury gave a splendidly confident interview with showtime’s below the belt as he talked up his chances of beating American WBC champion, Deontey Wilder on December 1st.
It was one of Fury’s most engaging interviews, he was exuding so much confidence as he always does. Expert knowledge has it that Deontey Wilder will emerge victorious when he completes the seventh defense of his WBC title a the Staple Centre in Los Angeles. Unbeaten Fury is the proverbial fall guy for this hotly anticipated clash, but those sold on a Wilder victory can’t help wavering when they listen to the gypsy man talk.
Fury’s confidence looks authentic as he berates WBC king Wilder, who has beaten 39 of his 40 consecutive victims by knockout. He doesn’t seem to envisage a scenario of defeat, drawing confidence from his defeat of Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 when he seized all the former champ’s belt. In Wilder, Fury is up against a younger, fitter, and hungrier fighter than Klitschko was but the 6ft 9 inch gypsy man believes Wilder can’t beat him.
Fury adamantly points to a renewed hunger for boxing that has seen him training hard since January. Not even his 2 year hiatus from the boxing ring is enough to dissuade his steadfast and unflinching view that he will outbox and outclass Deontey Wilder when the pair meet. He makes reference to a longer absence from the ring by one of boxing’s greats Sugar Ray Leonard , who was out between 1984 and 1987, but still returned to the ring with a victory over the marvelous Marvin Haggler.
Fury is not in the same league as Leonard, but if he believes he is then it is enough to sustain the level of self belief needed to genuinely compete, let alone excel at this level. Fury currently has a two and a half stone advantage in weight, a weight that has come down courtesy of hours of dedicated training. He has just over 3 weeks to get fitter before facing his judgement day at The Staple Centre before a global audience.
RUBBISHES
Fury rubbishes Wilder’s resume, calling them tomato cans. He makes reference to one of Wilder’s past fights in which the American lands flushly on his opponent a couple of times, but doesn’t knock him out. The big 6ft 9 inches gypsy fighter says Wilder’s arsenal is limited as he Fury says he can’t see how Wilder will beat him. ”If I am as good as I think I am, there is no way Wilder will beat me. If I am any good I’ll beat Wilder, and if I can’t beat Wilder them I am no good.
He continues; ”I said that before I fought Klitschko and I beat him. They said he had had 25 defenses, but I still beat him”.
Wilder is a different proposal to Klitschko because he is nearly 10 years younger than Klitschko and has a lot of fire in his belly. He is also very athletic, fast, and can be explosive when on the attack. Fury insists he will be fit for the fight, and has what it takes to nullify big punching Wilder.
Fury will be looking to raise his game with Wilder in what could make for an entertaining fight if both really watt victory. Many have already dismissed Fury’s chances of winning, but Fury compellingly reminds his audience that he has pulled off the odds before and will do so again.
ULTRA CONFIDENCE
Fury’s vocal tone is one of ultra confidence as he dismisses his American’s opponent’s chances of beating him. ”He has a puncher’s chance”, Fury says at one point. This is either a delusion of grandiose proportions or Fury really sees Wilder as being below him in the entirety of the threat he poses. There are also a few whispers behind the scenes that Tyson Fury sometimes holds some of his skills back in order to prevent future rivals from being able to keep track with his development.
If that’s true and Fury puts on his best show, he may trouble Wilder and ruin his flow all night with those jabs and heavy clinches. Wilder will be expected to be ready for any bodily strength differential between the two but as defending champion, he will be expected to win.
Wilder’s much lighter weight gives him tremendous speed and power. However, if Fury shakes them off and pulls off a remarkable win it would rank highly in the history books. Fury says it will be one of the greatest come backs of all time, and it probably would. During the same interview, Fury claimed to have offered Anthony Joshua out for a fight, which he said the current world champion declined out of fear.
”He seems pretty spirited, doesn’t he? “But when I stood face-to-face to him and said, ‘Do you want to get outside?’ His a*** started flapping. “He s*** himself, he said of Joshua.
“It doesn’t matter what weight I was at the time, I wasn’t in shape, but I’d have took him outside and kicked his c*** right in for him.
If a man said that to me – I don’t care if I was unfit or not – he’d be outside and punches. We’d have had to have a fight. Simple. “But I said that to him and he didn’t want to know.”
The two fighters once had a sparring session a while back and Fury reckons it was light work for him after Joshua, then still an amateur, won the early rounds.
“We’ve had a spar before, amateur boxer he was at the time, he had a good couple of rounds then I started hitting him round the body,” Fury added.
“He was like this, lifting his legs up in the corner, there were 10 people in the gym who saw it.
Fury’s confidence is admirable, but the real question is whether it will translate to the victory he envisages on December 1st. It will have to be his best ever performance for him to come anywhere close to winning. He has just over a month to go.