Tyson Fury to retire if he loses to McDermott
In Mexico’s Lucha Libre wrestling, it’s not uncommon for two rivals to wrestle in a mask v mask match. The idea is that the loser of the contest suffers the shame of having his sacred mask removed and therefore suffers a loss of identify that can often spell the end of their careers.
British domestic heavyweight prospect Tyson Fury has obviously been at the tacos because he has put a British spin on this and claimed that if he loses his rematch with John McDermott on Friday, then he will shamefully retire from the sport at 22 years of age.
A very bold statement of intent considering the general consensus is that in their first match McDermott was robbed. In fact it was such a bad decision that Frank Maloney, McDermott’s manager suffered a heart attack.
Fury has been hyped for a long time, mainly due to his excellent name, a boxing promoter’s dream. Doubts remain over his ability, he’s a big unit at 6ft 7in but he’s not in outstanding shape and right now looks nothing more than a domestic star and is currently most famous for a YouTube clip which depicts him punching himself in the face. Not exactly Floyd Mayweather Jnr levels of accuracy there.
On the other side of the fence McDermott can count himself the unluckiest man in British boxing with farcical decisions over Fury and Danny Williams. A good solid domestic fighter and an honest pro, yes he has more rolls than a women’s institute picnic, but domestic fighters tend to be a bit more rotund and for this level he is a useful puncher who can throw big shots.
Right now there is a sort of changing of the guards in the British unlimited-weight division. Out go the likes of Michael Sprott, Danny Williams and Audley Harrison in come the likes of Tyson Fury, Derek Chisora and Richard Towers. Realistically only one of these is going to push on to the next level in a division where quite frankly anyone with a bit of talent could wander in and clean up.
Like many boxers Fury talks himself up a good’un. He says he will beat David Haye, unify the heavyweight division, build the first-ever perpetual motion machine and all the other predictable clap-trap boxers spout. He was quite frankly awful on his last showing with McDermott, worse than awful in fact. If he fights like that again it will be the last we see of Mr Fury.
What Fury needs to do is step out the spotlight, work on his fitness levels and slowly build up the quality of his opposition. He young, he will improve and has years to fine-tune his craft yet. Look at Harrison, he’s gone and comeback more times than Elvis and now somehow has a world-title shot at 38 years of age, in heavyweight terms 22 is a mere pup.
Fury has shown some degree of promise in the past, notably taking on a fighter with a 21-3-0 record in only his second ever fight, not many fighters would do that and he has also scored a decent win over Scott Belshaw.
The future has to be a clash with the arguably even mouthier upstart Derek Chisora. However, credit to Chisora, who seems to have got his head down this year, concentrated on his boxing, taken the British belt and looked much better in his last few fights. Something Fury could learn from.
No doubt the two of them will contest many a domestic clash over the next 10 years or so. There seems to be a rivalry between them but its more Williams v Harrison than Muhammad Ali v Joe Frazier.
Let’s hope Fury makes it through on Friday night so we find out.
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