Author: Paul Hindley
If only to prove I care about things in boxing other than fighters who fought in black and white, I thought I would try and put a few words together about one of the more intriguing figures in modern boxing, Tyson Fury, and what, if any future he has in the sport. I’ll lay my cards on the table at the outset and say I like Fury, sometimes despite myself. In an era of PR varnished dullards across nearly all sports there is something refreshing in Fury’s unapologetically plain speaking ways. I don’t always care for what he says, but distaste at some of his comments aside he is never less than interesting, a claim few of his contemporaries can lay claim to.
Prior to his fight with Klitschko I’ll be honest I was less than convinced by Fury and his abilities. I considered myself something of a Furosceptic. However the Klitschko win was inarguably impressive. He went into the back yard of a long standing and dominant champion and he beat him, if not excitingly, then certainly comfortably. It showed a tactical astuteness and a discipline that had not been immediately apparent in his career to that point. It wasn’t just the performance in the ring which I considered impressive, in my view he got the psychological games outside the ring just right. From turning up to the press conference dressed as Batman to threatening to call the fight off were Klitschko’s hands not rewrapped, Fury showed he was not there to make up the numbers and was not going to do anything the Klitschko team expected. For a fighter such as Wlad who has established a method of working and preparing over a long title reign, tactics such as this which threw him off his game and ensured he could never get a read on Fury were absolutely the right ones to employ.
However for all that, one swallow does not make a summer, and if Fury was to prove this was not just a Buster Douglas type of right place, right time win he needed to build on this, repeat the trick and prove he could come up with similarly brilliant tactical plans for different opponents. Unfortunately though since that night in November 2015 we have had nothing. A rematch was scheduled against Klitschko in July 2016, and then rescheduled for October of the same year, on the back of a Fury injury. As we all know neither came to pass. I genuinely believe it would be possible to fill a book with the various rumours and conspiracy theories as to why these fights didn’t happen. The initial story was he was suffering depression, then stories of heavy cocaine use began to emerge, before finally allegations of a failed or missed test for performance enhancing drugs appeared.
I don’t particularly intend to focus too much on these rumours. This is for the entirely practical reason that, seemingly like most people, I have no idea whatsoever what is going on, or which of the possible causes for his absence are true. Piecing together the bits of solid evidence that are available it appears Fury has a hearing due this October with UK Anti-Doping, given he will have been out of the ring for nigh on two years at that point one would hope we will have a definitive answer as to whether Fury is clear to continue his career. Even if Fury is cleared though we then have the question as to whether he either wants to return or is physically able to do so.