By Chris Kelly: In wait of his recent victory over “Big Bad” John McDermott, 22 year old Tyson Fury has become a very controversial subject of debate within the UK boxing community. Whilst it has to be said, the Manchester based heavyweight’s victory in last week’s rematch clearly was of a higher standard than their first encounter and a stoppage win over John McDermott in any fashion is an impressive feat, questions were raised by the at times lackluster performance. Namely; Can Tyson put his mark on the world stage?
Even at a first glance one is left to draw conflicting conclusions over the heavyweight’s fate. On one hand he has some very impressive physical gifts. Standing at 6 ft. 8 inches tall with an impressive 85 inch reach, few boxers can offer such an intimidating appearance. However, is fleshy uncut and untoned physique is quite uninspiring to say the least and I can think of few great World Champions in the heavyweight division who showed up to too many fights in this shape (at time of writing David Tua is certainly not a great Heavyweight Champion).
Fury has on many occasion stated his desires to become not simply a world champion but a successful renowned fighter to define his own era of heavyweight boxing, not a single era to date has been defined by anyone with a body like him. Whilst it should be noted that boxing is indeed a sport and not a bodybuilders contest, one must presume that as Fury steps up the level of his opposition, this will eventually begin to serve as a detriment.
In his defence, he has so far in his short career dispatched of a handful of decent opponents, to his credit most of which coming by knockout. Fury has notched up notable wins so far over Daniil “shrek” Peret, Scott Belshaw, Mathew Ellis, Lee Swaby and of course John McDermott. With nine of his eleven wins coming inside the distance and his spectacular amateur pedigree, it is clear that giant heavyweight is talented however he will need to show his profession and his conditioning a greater deal of respect if he is to continue his unbeaten run against the likes of Derek Chisora, Audley Harrison, Albert Sosnowski and Sam Sexton. In short, success of some degree for the English champion is inevitable if not already accomplished however it remains to be seen whether or not he’ll live up to his name. This writer would suggest it comes down to himself.
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