NEW world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury has revealed a unique inspiration for his superb victory over Wladimir Klitschko in Dusseldorf on Saturday night.
“The night before the fight, I was reading the Boxing News Annual [2016], reading about all the boxers’ greatest nights,” he told us. “I read about when Ricky Hatton beat Kostya Tszyu and Ricky said, ‘It was only me and my trainer thought I could win.’ He said that made it sweeter and this is an even bigger upset because it was in Germany.”
At the end of 12 cagey rounds Fury felt he had done more than enough to prevail, but the fight’s location still left room for doubt.
“I thought, ‘It’s too wide for me not to get the decision, even with the point taken off in round 11.’,” he remarked. “I had him with a left hook and he was going but he was holding me and wouldn’t let go, so I hit him on the back of the head to get him off and the referee took a point off and gave him all the chances to recover. Peter said to get him out of there in the last round, that we had to make sure in Germany, so I tried and we both took some good shots. My brother Shane said it was too wide for me to lose and Carl Froch told me someone had me two up, HBO had me seven ahead at one stage. Peter said, ‘We’re in Germany so expect the unexpected’, and I asked God, ‘Please don’t let them rob me.’ Then Michael Buffer said, ‘From the United Kingdom…’ and I thought he was going to say ‘Ukraine’. But when I’d heard the win was by scores of three and five points, I thought, ‘Surely it can’t be for him.’ After the 12th round I put my hands straight up, while he was deflated, had his head down and was cut to bits; if you look at the two faces, they tell who won the fight.”
Fury pens an exclusive Guest Column in this week’s Boxing News magazine.
