NEW WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury is as creative with his words as his punches and is often happy to twist the truth in the name of column inches and self-preservation.
Ahead of his February 22 fight with Deontay Wilder, for example, there was talk of Fury attacking Wilder and looking for a stoppage win inside a couple of rounds, a claim most considered nonsense. There were also reports Fury had suffered an ankle injury during training camp, a claim most considered legitimate, one they allowed to impact pre-fight forecasts.
As it turned out, however, the first claim was the truth and the second one little more than a white lie used to smoke out any potential moles in camp.
“There were a couple days where Tyson messed around to see if leaks would happen,” Andy Lee, Fury’s assistant coach, told Boxing Social.
“He feigned injury or pretended to limp after a sparring session just to see what would happen.
“That’s the type of level of deviousness you’re dealing with, with him. Inside his own training camp, he’ll put on a show and play act to see if anyone talks outside the camp.”
Sure enough, the only thing trickier than fighting Tyson Fury is determining whether what he says to the media is truth or a pack of lies.
It has seemed something of an inevitability for the last 12 months but now we have confirmation that Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano will clash in a blockbuster super fight at Manchester Arena on May 2.
On the line will be Taylor’s lightweight world titles, all four of them, as Serrano, a seven-weight world champion, looks to make her mark at lightweight, a division in which she won the WBO title back in 2014.
“It’s a fight that seems to have been talked about for years so I’m just glad it’s finally on,” said Taylor, a two-weight world champion. “It’s a massive fight and one that I have been looking forward to for a long, long time.
“I’ve been working hard in training camp in the US since the start of the year so it’s great have a date to focus on now and I can’t wait for May 2nd.”
Taylor, 15-0 (6), registered a points win over Christina Linardatou to claim the WBO super-lightweight title in November but is now back down at lightweight, the weight at which Delfine Persoon gave her all she could handle last June New York.
Serrano, meanwhile, has a pro record of 38-1-1 (28) and was last seen defending her WBO featherweight title against Heather Hardy in an action-packed fight at Madison Square Garden in September. Since then she has completed a routine tune-up fight against Simone Aparecida da Silva, a fight she won inside three rounds, and been waiting for the call to challenge Taylor.
“I’m happy we finally got this big fight made because both myself and Katie deserve to be in this position,” said the Puerto Rican. “While our fight could have been a main event, I’m still grateful it’s happening. I’m not going to talk down to Katie, as I know she won’t to me, so I’ll leave it at this: one thing that’s for sure is that we’ll both leave it all in the ring.”
Topping the May 2 card at the Manchester Arena is a heavyweight battle between controversial top 10 contenders Dillian Whyte and Alexander Povetkin.
