Deontay Wilder and world title redemption awaits but will the real Tyson Fury please stand up
The most important boxing event of the year takes place tonight at the iconic Windsor Park stadium in Belfast, with much on the line for everybody competing. In the main event, Belfast’s own Carl Frampton faces Luke Jackson, while Frampton’s best friend from childhood Paddy Barnes fights for a world title in just his sixth professional fight.
Yet despite two hometown heroes fighting for glory in front of tens of thousands of their compatriots, all the attention is on another fighter who is one win away from the biggest heavyweight title fight of the last 40 years.
The world was a very different place the last time Tyson Fury fought in an important professional boxing match. In November 2015, Brexit was a mere concept, Donald Trump was a past-prime businessman, and Chris Evans was still perceived to be a viable and acceptable television presenter.
Against all the odds, after years in the wilderness which led to many people believing that he would never fight again, Fury is now just one win away from having the opportunity to reclaim a world heavyweight title. Undefeated WBC champion Deontay Wilder is waiting to sign a contract should Fury win this evening with the two expected to clash in November.
So much has changed since that night in Dussledorf when Fury shocked the world by outclassing the legendary Wladimir Klitschko over 12 cagey, yet utterly absorbing rounds. When Fury sang Aerosmith in the ring following his victory, it felt like a Black Mirror episode had come to life. Forget the Twilight Zone, this was the unlikeliest scenario to occur since June Sarpong’s popularity in the mid-2000s.
Despite the erratic nature of Fury’s general behaviour, a rematch was scheduled with Klitschko, press conferences took place and tickets went on sale, but an overweight and maudlin Fury pulled out citing injury.
Then everything began to go wrong. Failed drugs tests, weight gain, cocaine, Tyson Fury had become the Manchester Marlon Brando, a faded replica of a man who could have been the greatest. Christian verse on Twitter was swiftly followed by sweary rants, as a brilliant legacy threatened to become a bitter life.
The heavyweight boxing landscape began to be dominated by Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder, while Klitschko, who dominated the division for over a decade, is now firmly retired.
Considering all of Fury’s many accomplishments and controversies, it’s sometimes hard to believe that he’s still just 30 years old, only 14 months older than Anthony Joshua. Fury made his professional debut as a teenager almost ten years ago, and swiftly moved through the ranks, becoming British champion in his 15th fight against Dereck Chisora.
Born with blistering speed and supreme movement for a man so large, Fury was the most divisive fighter in boxing for much of his run to the heavyweight title. To some, he was the chosen one, a man whose confidence matched his prodigious talent. For others, he was a lumbering bigmouth who had simply talked his way to lucky wins.
Fury put all the doubters to bed when he defeated Klitschko away from home but failed to fully impress in his comeback match in June against 39-year-old Sefer Seferi, ranked at the time as the second-best cruiserweight in Albania, behind his 41-year-old brother Nuri.
It’s believed Norman Wisdom is still considered the third best cruiserweight in Albania, and he’s been dead for eight years.
Fury vs Seferi ended up as comedic as a prime Norman Wisdom sketch, with barely a punch thrown in the first few rounds, before Fury thankfully ended the bout in the fourth. Tonight, the competition rises a few notches against Italy’s Francesco Pianeta. Win, and a clash with Deontay Wilder is virtually assured, and with Wilder watching at ringside having already created a stir in Belfast, Fury will want to impress before the inevitable WWE-esque post fight shenanigans.
The self-proclaimed Gypsy King has stayed silent on many of the contentious issues of which he so openly referenced in the past, and his popularity has increased as a result during his departure from boxing. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and Fury has become the uncrowned champion for many boxing fans, an antidote to conventionality and media-managed behavior.
Whether this comeback works or not requires a multitude of factors to combine. Does Fury still have the speed, awareness and savvy he accrued so intensely during his rise to title glory? Can he keep his mouth shut and not self-destruct again? Will drugs and food abuse return the moment a hint of negativity enters his life? And perhaps most crucially, is his ambition still there? Does Fury genuinely believe he’s still the best heavyweight in the world, or is this return all about banking a few notes after earning nothing for two years?
Whatever happens, boxing is a better place with Tyson Fury in it. Sport needs three-dimensional athletes that people can believe in, or simply hope that they lose. Robots don’t rule the world just yet, and every human with belief in individuality deserves the chance to rise again.
While Fury vs Pianeta is the people’s main event, Frampton officially tops the bill against undefeated Australian Luke Jackson. Frampton was impressive against Nonito Donaire in his last bout, but there are still question marks over whether he has peaked as a fighter. Wins over Scott Quigg and Leo Santa Cruz in 2016 made Frampton a household name, but after losing his rematch with Santa Cruz, he seems to have lost some of the intensity which made him so successful initially.
33-year-old Jackson is talking a good game ahead of the bout and has never tasted defeated as a professional, yet he also never faced a quality opponent in his career, nor has he ever had to face an atmosphere as hostile as Belfast will be tonight. Expect Frampton to take out Jackson in the middle rounds, and then call out Josh Warrington for a winter showdown.
Elsewhere at Windsor Park, Paddy Barnes faces a highly difficult challenge to defeat Cristofer Rosales for the WBC flyweight title. An amateur standout, Barnes has looked very average in his five professional bouts thus far and is going against the best in the division tonight.
