By Yannis Mihanos: What’s happening to Tyson Fury? He is now the IBO/WBA.WBO heavyweight champion of the world but he doesn’t behave like one in the minds of many boxing fans. Fury will be fighting a rematch next month against Wladimir Klitschko on July 9 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK.
Is he insane biting the hand that feeds him? Is Fury actually damaging the world of boxing? Well, maybe yes maybe not.
Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) appears as unconventional and as unpredictable as he can be. It seems that Fury has one step in this reality and one step in his reality.
Fury gets on the nerves of almost all involved in boxing: reporters, promoters, writers and especially his big rival: Wladimir Klitshcko (64-4,53 KOs). Many consider him as an annoyance and others as savior.
You don’t get to meet guys like this in boxing so often. You can’t help but listen some of what he has to say.
Fury often makes the promotion of this fight look foolish and the fans who buy the tickets too.
For example, Fury says: “I have nothing to lose and if I lose so be it” or “I don’t care what happens to me next I will just accept any outcome even if I lose in the first round with a knock out.”
For many, such statements show ignorance and disrespect and are not easy to swallow. We are used to hear war like comments or respectful ones, the usual bread and butter of boxing.
Fury does not set into any category. For that he is definitely different. Not many have the balls to speak like he speaks.
It is obvious that Fury has the timing for doing this. He has found the time and place. Often timing when speaking out leads to greatness or to insanity.
Very recently we lost a unique personality in boxing that it could not be defined by anyone inside and outside boxing: Muhammad Ali. He was really one of a kind.
For many boxing fans, Fury is a complete nutcase, a great candidate for cinema’s classic film “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest.”
To Fury’s defense, I will say this: Strong opinions often look dramatic and insane; that’s just the way it is. There is a thin line that separates geniuses from loonies and vice versa.
Fury gets paid very well to do what he does and that lets him do a lot of the talking and promoting, unfortunately he is not Mayweather to do a well-rounded marketing of the fight.
His life out of boxing is not one that you can call eccentric either, he doesn’t go on crazy shopping sprees or fight with policemen in the streets neither he participates in protests about something he cares for. Still, he is an eccentric persona.
The contrast between him and Klitschko is like night and day. Klitschko is always careful in his appearances and with the words that come out from his mouth, he is a solid professional.
Because Fury has repeatedly broken the hypocrisy that runs in many boxers, people have criticized him but he has done nothing wrong.
Many others fight for money, some are paper champs but pretend that are here only to make history, classic baloney tales for the fans to purchase the tickets and the PPVs.
Colorful personalities like Fury give more life in boxing, more space, more originality.
Those who love to hate him and those who are generally interested in will gather to watch him fighting for the second time against Klitschko on July 9
Whether he retires or not afterwards I think it is now irrelevant to talk because good offers will continue coming unless of course he gets locked in a cage somewhere not so far…