During one of Dillian Whyte’s rare pre-fight interviews he said, ‘This is not the Tyson Fury show’, as he grumbled again about how he felt he had been treated in the whole process for Saturday night’s fight to be agreed.
Well, I’m afraid those words came back to haunt him badly. Saturday night was most definitely the Tyson Fury show! The gulf in class between the two men was jaw-dropping at times.
For all the pre-fight talk from Whyte about how he should have been treated more equally to Fury with regards to money and respect; there was nothing equal about them in the ring. Fury put on a show of boxing which made it crystal clear that the likes of Whyte are nowhere near his level. I’m not sure what will happen from here for Dillian Whyte, but he was taught a lesson on Saturday night.
I must admit that all of Fury’s grace towards his opponent and talk of retirement during the press conference made me nervous for him. I thought he had one eye on retirement which might mean he had taken his eye off the ball – I couldn’t have been more wrong.
His gentlemanly conduct was from a man supremely confident about what he would do on the night. It was the behaviour of a man entirely at peace with who he is and what he can do in a boxing ring. He knew what he was going to do in the fight and didn’t need any words to make a difference to that.
I, like so many other boxing fans, am desperate for Fury not to retire and to have one final fight to unify the heavyweight division whether that be against Oleksandr Usyk or Anthony Joshua. Yes, he has little left to prove but to hold the official title of the undisputed champion of the world only seems right for the man. We will all be watching every word he says in the next few months to see if that really is it.
Whatever happens, there is no doubt that Fury is someone who has reached a place in his life in which he’s found contentment. We must never forget the journey that he has been on and the dark places that he found himself in while crippled with depression. He was a man weighing nearly 30 stone that many people wrote off as never fighting again.
In fact, many people mocked him as he started his comeback journey. He called out the biggest puncher in the world, Deontay Wilder, while slowly trudging on a jog in Morecombe and most just thought it was never happening. Yet, here is today, the king of the world in boxing and by some distance.
Tyson Fury has brought a new dimension to me for boxing in the last ten years. A normal guy who has never spoken the commercial jargon that some athletes do. He’s been unpredictable, raw, honest and an incredible spokesperson for those that feel on the outside at times in life, and a master of his craft in the ring. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for one more Tyson Fury show.
