By Rob Blakeman: Back in November last year boxing suffered one of its biggest ever tragedies. Not the death of a great former champion, no, even worse; Tyson Fury became the lineal Heavyweight Champion of the World. Vladimir Klitschko put in a career worst performance, practically giving his title away. Fury performed poorly too but slightly less so and thus to my mind he was winner by default in what was a positive horse tranquilizer of a ‘fight’.
Since the moment he was declared Champion Fury has believed this to be a license to do and say as he pleases, regardless of whether it steps well beyond the realms of common decency he has preferred streaming political and racial unconsciousness rather than talking about boxing. He has little or no self-censorship, spewing machine gun like, staccato bursts of asinine sound bites of malice and hatred, containing disjointed leaps in ideation to justify his fascistic ideas and pointless oppositions of various minorities and sections of society.
The rhetoric is both disturbing and difficult to follow, but worse, by acting this way, in such a brazen and public method, he has been killing the value of this most prestigious title-and then mutilating it. Even on a practical level it has also been a shocking but textbook display of self sabotage that must have cost him and his team millions of dollars in lost sponsorship deals. It’s as if he was just elected President and then immediately flew Air force One into the twin towers. In the catch-all name of ‘Freedom of speech’ he attempts to unlock simple people’s last restraint to rush in and attack anything or anyone different to them or that which they don’t understand. It’s very dangerous language and it’s all done with the entitlement that only the man in possession of the greatest title a sportsman can hold can do.
The irony is of course no one with a normal functioning brain would take advice from Fury, (I’d rather get guidance from an Ouija board or maybe a fortune cookie.) but many people do listen and if the anti boxing lobby ever needed a poster boy they have it in Fury who while still in his twenties exhibits all the signs of blunt trauma brain damage every time he speaks. He is a true moron; every time I see him I literally hear circus music. But worse still in every sense he is the anti-champion; rather than uniting people with strong words of respect for the discipline and honor of the sport and of his opponents he appears to be channeling Hitler during his press conferences which are in themselves a misery marathon of xenophobia, foulmouthed put downs and depressing observations on the pointlessness of it all. He clearly doesn’t understand the complexities of his statements regarding minorities either but then complexity isn’t his thing. He’s the biggest single cell organism on the planet. I watch his press conferences in the same state of anticipation and dread that I feel when I watch the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination. He is the worst example of a professional sportsman for young fans of boxing that I can remember. He appears to care less about children than Herod, not even making a pretense at acting responsibly. I could 3D print a better role model than Fury.
In the aftermath of these various displays of ignorance, his uncle and as far as I can tell his ‘press manager’ Peter Fury attempts to defend his nephew’s words in the same manner that I imagine Charles Manson’s defense team tried to plead him. Can you imagine being responsible for Tyson Fury’s media? I’d rather be the P. R. man for a shoe bomber.
Then there is Fury’s preposterous weight gain between these two fights. This lends even more levity to his claim of being the best heavyweight in the world. He has ambition but no conviction. He wants to be regarded as a great but he doesn’t want it more than eating, drinking or partying. I’d like to say I’m sorry for coming on so strong except I can’t-because I’m not sorry. I love this sport. I’ve loved boxing since first seeing Ali fight on the black and white TV as a child alongside my Dad. I have been involved in boxing for over 25 years, training, promoting and managing fighters. So Fury becoming Champion was literally my greatest fear realized. I knew the attention that title would gain for this person and his unconstructiveness but he has even exceeded my expectations with his continuously reprehensible behavior that is inevitably reflected on boxing fans Worldwide. The constant spewing of vile hatred in the name of the Heavy Weight Champion just makes me ashamed to be British and almost ashamed of this sport. He has no filter, no off switch and absolutely no compunction. Worse still, he has no code and no honor. We all need to hope Klitschko is back on form in next months rematch so that this Fury character is relieved of that grand title. Alternatively, if Fury wins, well, just Google Shakespeare: tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Go Wlad, go!