By Frank Warren
Tyson Fury is not as daft as some people think. Come what may, when he wakes up in Dusseldorf on Sunday morning he’ll be well over £2 million richer. And he could be the new heavyweight champion of the world. But I wouldn’t bet on it.
Well I might – but it would have to be very small bet. Any substantial wager must be on Wladimir Klitschko pounding out another remorseless victory over the lippy giant Gypsy King who now admits if he doesn’t win the title he be left with egg on his face. And a smattering of the red stuff, too, I shouldn’t wonder.
Of course there is no such thing as a racing certainty. Nor a boxing one. When two big men collide anything can happen. Remember February 10, 1990.
If Fury wins tonight it surely will be the most seismic upset in heavyweight boxing since 42-1 underdog James ‘Buster’ Douglas left the other Tyson - the seemingly indestructible Iron Mike - scrabbling around the floor of the Tokyo Dome on his knees like a drunk looking for a discarded cigarette butt on a bar room floor.
Make no mistake, while at 27, and 6ft 9in Fury may be younger, bigger and unbeaten in 24 contests, he is up against it in Germany. If the fight was here I’d have given him a better chance.
I think a lot of what Fury says and does is for effect, although it can be worrying at times, not least when he lets his toilet mouth run away with it. Sometimes he appears to be not quite the ticket, going well beyond the realms of pre-fight hype.
A lot of it will hinge on his questionable temperament. Over the past few weeks Fury has been ranting and raving, true to form, but I’ve noticed that as the fight approaches he’s become much quieter and seems more respectful of Klitschko. Maybe he is beginning to realise the enormity of his task.
Klitschko has won all sorts of battles before the fight starts, principally in getting the fight on in Germany where, although he is Ukrainian, he is regarded as one of their own.
I found it interesting that when we were negotiating to get the fight over here, Klitschko and his people put up all sorts of obstacles, including wanting to bring their own doctor to supervise the medical procedures. I found that interesting. Why would he insist on that?
Fury’s best win unquestionably was his second fight with Dereck Chisora, but that may be as good as it gets. Against Wlad’s big brother Vitali, Chisora had shown how to frustrate a Klitschko by taking the fight to him. Neither of them like being pressed.
Fury has an advantage in size on mobility and he does have an excellent jab, plus the ability to switch hit. So I don’t write him off altogether. However, being realistic, Fury hasn’t got the greatest chin in the world, though he does get up after being hit. But safety first Klitschko can be a truly damaging puncher and he knows how to systematically wear down opponents and rough them up.
Fury will struggle to get a points decision in Germany and I don’t feel he has sufficient power, even for such a huge man, to knock-out Klitschko. I think if he is still there around the eighth it will be with the realisation he is in a different league.
You wouldn’t call Klitschko charismatic but you would call him classy, and in the end it is his professionalism, plus his superb physical condition which are likely to be the decisive factors.
As the Ukrainian says, experience can’t be bought in a shop.
Klitschko may be nudging 40 but he is a well preserved specimen of a fighter who, like Floyd Mayweather jnr, never strays out if shape and rarely puts a fist wrong defensively.
However, as has been said many times in boxing, the legs can go in one fight and Fury’s main hope has to be that age will suddenly catch up with the multi-belted champion.
Will this be the moment when it happens with Klitschko? Personally I don’t think so.
True, there were some signs that he was beginning to show his age in his last fight in New York against Bryant Jennings but a couple of bouts prior to that he had dealt with typical efficiency his former fellow Olympic champion, the Russian Alexander Povetkin: a man few would expect Fury to beat.
Fury, among other things, is obviously someone possessing intense religious zeal. But does he have a prayer against the most enduring heavyweight champion since Joe Louis?
Let’s hope he doesn’t end up on his knees.
