Boxing

FROM the extraordinary ring walk to the explosive stoppage, it was a bravura performance. Tyson Fury was carried into the ring, shoulder high on a throne, in a crown and regal robes, singing along to Patsy Cline’s Crazy.
Tyson Fury will look to defend his world heavyweight championship this weekendCredit: Getty
Fury destroyed Deontay Wilder in their rematch last year to claim the WBC titleCredit: Reuters
He had told us all week that he would overpower the heavyweight division’s greatest knockout artist, Deontay Wilder, but few believed he was capable of winning in the manner he did.
Roared on by thousands of British and Irish fight fans, Fury performed a demolition job so comprehensive that there was little appetite for the trilogy fight in Las Vegas in the early hours of Sunday morning.
That rematch – after a thrilling draw in Los Angeles in December 2018 – was almost 20 months ago now, shortly before the global sporting lockdown. 
And it often seems to have been forgotten quite how spectacular Fury was on that remarkable night in Sin City. 
During the height of the pandemic, British fans dreamt of an all-British fight between Fury and Anthony Joshua for the undisputed crown.   
It was widely assumed that, should such a contest take place, Joshua would be the people’s champion, with overwhelming support. 

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Yet Fury, who’d been to oblivion and back before his first flight with Wilder, is now, without doubt, the greatest heavyweight on Earth. 
And should he reproduce anything like that display against Wilder – inside and outside of the ring – he might just become the world’s most popular heavyweight too. 
While Joshua has always been slick, photogenic and blue-chip, Fury was the rough-edged traveller with the scattergun mouth, the pantomime villain.  
In recent years, Fury has cut out the worst of his tirades – the fire-and-brimstone homophobic rants. 
This is a deeply complex character, who suffered from serious mental health issues after dethroning Wladimir Klitschko with a masterful display of ring-craft back in 2015. 
But while always unpredictable, Fury can be compelling, amusing, lyrical and is a natural showman. 
In contrast, Joshua can seem over-produced and stilted. 
The schooling he received in his defeat by Oleksandr Usyk at Tottenham a fortnight ago suggested that Joshua overestimated his own boxing abilities and was gun-shy when he ought to have been targeting a stoppage. 
We always knew Fury was capable of out-boxing and out-pointing any other modern-day heavyweight.
How Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder stack up ahead of the trilogy fight
He has probably won 16 of the 19 rounds he has fought against Wilder, yet was robbed of victory in the original fight, having ducked, weaved and showboated his way to superiority until his brutal final-round knockdown and Lazarus-style rise from the canvas. 
Before that first bout, we had assumed Fury was far too early in his comeback to take on an unbeaten Wilder for the WBC crown. We were wrong.    
Before the second bout, we knew he was a far superior boxer but we did not see him piling into the American from the first bell to the surrender of the towel from trainer Mark Breland in the seventh. Wrong again.  
Fury and Wilder are only getting it on again because a US judge compelled it – just when it had looked as though Joshua-Fury would finally happen this summer. 
That Usyk defeat means we are less likely than ever to witness that ultimate battle of Britain – it is a potential fight which has lost much of its prestige and intrigue. 
Nobody outside Joshua’s inner circle can now believe the Watford man has a cat in hell’s chance of defeating Fury.
Fury comfortably dismantled Wilder when the two met in February 2020Credit: Reuters
As for Wilder, well he always has a puncher’s chance – he tested Fury’s jaw and his stomach for the fight when they first met in LA. 
Surely, though, Britain cannot lose two world heavyweight champions in as many weeks? 
Re-watch that second Fury-Wilder fight and it is impossible to imagine the complete reversal of fortunes required for an upset this time around.
From the left-right combination that floored Wilder in the third, to the body-shot which sent him sprawling in the fifth, to the mighty straight right, which ended the fight with the Alabama man pinned in the corner, Fury’s dominance was complete. 
If we want to speculate, we’d be better off wondering what sort of ring walk Fury has planned this time and what sort of karaoke tune he might croon in the ring afterwards. 
What happens in between feels as close to inevitable as heavyweight boxing can ever get. 
Tyson Fury says he’d have nutted the c*** if face-off with Deontay Wilder happened at final press conference More

RICKY HATTON has urged mate Tyson Fury to keep British boxing afloat by not letting the Deontay Wilder trilogy go ‘tits up’.The Manchester legend was ringside to watch AJ surrender his WBA, IBF and WBO world titles to Oleksandr Usyk on September 25, as prospect son Campbell Hatton got a win on the undercard.
Tyson Fury will defend his WBC title for the first time this weekend against Deontay WilderCredit: The Mega Agency
Ricky Hatton has warned Fury he needs to keep his concentration to beat Wilder againCredit: Getty
In 2017 the UK held 13 boxing world titles but AJ’s defeat last month saw the number dwindle down to just six.
And the 43-year-old national treasure wants his old pal – who did two training camps in his Manchester gym when working with ex-trainer Ben Davison in 2019 – to keep his eye on the ball in Sin City this weekend so he does not lose his WBC belt.
“Tyson is the favourite but it is not a foregone conclusion,” the two-weight champion said. “It will be tricky.
“We all want Tyson to win but – like we saw with the AJ fight – these are all sticky wickets and it can all go tits up with one heavyweight punch.”
Hatton has bravely gone public with his battle with depression, exacerbated by his 2007 and 2009 defeats to Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, respectively.
And he has felt genuine concern watching Wilder – a former five-year champion – blame almost everybody but himself for the shellacking he took and sack assistant trainer Mark Breland for throwing in the towel.

Hatton is not even angry that the 6ft 7in American has accused him of tampering with Fury’s gloves for their original 2018 draw.
He said: “I watched everything Wilder said after the loss and I don’t think he was saying it from the right place.
“I know, from being beaten by Pacquiao inside two rounds, that mentally your head falls off.
“When I saw he was blaming me for loading Tyson’s gloves and then Mark Breland for tampering with his water, I thought he was suffering with something.”
Fury’s iconic comeback from 28st depressive to two-time heavyweight champion was overseen by Davison.
But, after the Los Angeles draw with Wilder, Fury decided to train under KO specialist SugarHill Steward.
The world was stunned by the sensational seven-round stoppage win that followed but Hatton says he saw it coming from their shared sessions – including the famous one that ended with them posing topless together.
Fury demolished Wilder via seventh round stoppage back in February 2020Credit: Reuters
He told us: “I knew he had that power, you couldn’t miss it when he was in my gym.
“But he has just never needed it because he always had every other tool in the locker.
“This is a 6ft 9in heavyweight who can box orthodox or southpaw, on the backfoot or in the pocket.
“I knew he always had it in him because he can honestly do anything.
“It seemed to me he just liked and felt most comfortable boxing off the backfoot.
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“But when he was training here I would watch him and, sometimes in the last couple of rounds of sparring, he would like to put his foot down and bully his opponent.
“He can sit on your chest and squash your work, pull and drag and smother you.
“Anyone who is 18-19st, if they hit you on the chin you are going over.”
Tyson Fury says he’d have nutted the c*** if face-off with Deontay Wilder happened at final press conference More