WE’RE just days away from the heavyweight fight of 2018 and, according to Tyson Fury, WBC world heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder will be expecting to meet a “big fat English idiot” at the Staples Center on Saturday night (December 1).
Wilder and Fury will contest Wilder’s title following months of build-up and Fury, the unpredictable Brit who has boxed just twice in three years, says he has duped his American opponent into taking a fight he should have avoided.
“The Bronze Bomber made the biggest mistake of his life when he let me talk him into this fight,” Fury told talkSPORT.
“Wilder never realised that it was me who chose to fight him, not the other way round. He is in for a terrible shock when he sees me in the ring. Sees that I’ve beaten him already.
“I told Frank (Warren, promoter) this was the fight I wanted above all others. No more bums. So I asked him to tell Wilder’s team that he would be fighting a big fat English idiot who had only come back for the money.
“They’ve bitten off more than they can chew. I tricked them into it, but they still don’t know what they’ve let themselves in for.”
That, I suppose, is the beauty of Tyson Fury. Nobody really knows what they’re in for – not even the man himself. This unpredictability is what helped him bamboozle Wladimir Klitschko in 2015, ending a nine-year reign against the odds, and it’s also what led to two-and-a-half years in the wilderness following a number of questionable decisions and personal issues. As fascinating as any character in the sport, it’s why we keep coming back for more.
Whether any of this will be enough to dethrone Wilder and take his WBC title remains to be seen, but, rest assured, on Saturday night in LA we will receive the answer to the question on the tip of the boxing world’s tongue: Is Tyson Fury the new WBC world heavyweight champion, and the rightful number one in the division, or is he simply, to use his own words, a big fat English idiot who has only come back for the money?
We’ve heard it all before, of course, but let’s suspend disbelief for a moment and imagine he means it this time.
According to the Sheffield Star, Kell Brook, the former IBF welterweight champion, is ready and willing to finally face Amir Khan next year – and also has an interest in doing a rematch against Errol Spence, the current IBF titleholder and the last man to beat him.
That’s Brook’s order of preference providing he gets past the unheralded Michael Zerafa on December 8 in Sheffield, and will no doubt be music to the ears of British fight fans who have been patiently waiting for Brook and Khan to stop all the talking and settle their differences in the ring.
“The way I am feeling now I want to beat this kid (Zerafa), then Khan, then want a rematch with Errol Spence,” Brook told the Star. “I want a fight with Shawn Porter (the WBC welterweight champion) and the other big names like Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia… I can come back to welterweight.”
For this seemingly routine fight against Zerafa, the former champion has done the bulk of his training in Fuerteventura, under the eye of new trainer John Fewkes, and will be without long-time head coach Dominic Ingle on the night of the fight. “I am light now, and I am flying,” said the 32-year-old. “It’s like I have been reborn. John has got the best out of me, without a doubt.”
A reborn Kell Brook, 37-2 (26), is singing from the same old hymn sheet only this time seems determined to make 2019 a far more productive and meaningful year than his 2018. That bodes well not only for ‘Special K’, but also for those keen to see him in a big fight or two before his career is brought to a close.
