By Ken Hissner: Former mastermind trainer of Floyd Patterson and “Iron” Mike Tyson, Cus D’Amato would say “mind over matter!” That was to give his boxers confidence to overcome any obstacles.
D’Amato convinced Patterson a 165 pound Olympian. You can add 20 pounds and be just as good at heavyweight. Having met Cus when Tyson was only 15, I thought Cus was a genius.
A former Philadelphia boxer was in the corridor outside Fury’s dressing room; he told me when Fury came out ready for his ring walk. Fury bust’s into Wilder’s dressing room and point’s to him, and yells, “I’m going to f…ing knock you out!” The look on his face said the observer said, “the fight was over!”
Wilder blamed his too-heavy outfit during the ring walk and other excuses for his poor performance. Of course, like too many fighters, they blame their trainer for overtraining them or not preparing them properly. The trainer is replaced after each loss by too many fighters.
Wilder fired Mark Breland, saying he should not have stopped the fight. He didn’t want to see his fighter taking any more punishment and get killed!
In November of 2015, Fury defeated former champion Wladimir Klitschko. I read that at the press conference, Fury shows up in a “Batman” costume, goes over to a table and puts his hand on it, and goes over it, scaring the hell out of Klitschko. Did it have an effect on him?
Wilder was fortunate enough to get a draw in their first encounter and got beat up in their second one. It has to be the money bringing him back for the third time. He will need “mind over matter when entering the ring, probably with a light robe or no robe!
Former world champion Sonny Liston would put such a scare into his opponent during the referee’s instructions with his eye contact “look!”
Remember Zab Judah during instructions hitting his opponent on the thigh? It didn’t help him any in losing the bout.
Too many times, I have seen press conferences where both fighters are exchanging harsh and loud words, and the fights end up boring. Let’s hope Fury and Wilder winner and Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk winner agrees to a unification bout before Fury decides to retire.
Fury’s personality has been good for boxing. His Boxrec amateur record of 20-5 with one stoppage losing to four lesser opponents and one good amateur is not impressive. His 30-0-1 record with twenty-one stoppages is impressive. At age thirty-three, he talks about two or three more fights before retiring. He’s been fighting as a professional for thirteen years and could be looking to retire.
Only five of Fury’s opponents had losing records and those early in his career. We’ve seen him flat on his back and get up fighting back, showing there is no quit in him. Will “Mind over Matter” win out for Fury one more time?