Ha yeh that's it pajkic. Mate I love fury, but don't think many saw it coming with him back then tbh. I went out to germany to support him in the klitscko fight, but most of his supporters were there more out of hope than belief in my experience, everyone was speaking with was along the lines of "hope he does it but can see him getting nailed with that right hand", well least that how it seemed. Was made up when he did it like
OP : Yeah I bought the hype and why not ?? On the surface Price was a 6'7 HW with a sledgehammer right, piston jab and with amateur pedigree who was gonna reignite the HW division and bring the titles back to Blighty. And when knocking over cans and fringe domestic level opponents he did look the real deal it's just as soon as Pricey went beyond that level we discovered he had no chin, no self belief and perhaps the worst stamina I've ever seen in a professional boxer.
Definitely not many. But I think some people who weren't outright down on Fury, who might've been otherwise disposed to have some belief in him, were maybe influenced or inhibited by the amount of people who were crapping on him. People can lack confidence in what they might see or feel and will look both ways before making a statement. I remember around late 2014, the main guy holding the fort at the fitness gym I used to S&C at would have conversations with me about boxing when I was in there to do my work. Typical kind of casual whose inalterable mental image of a heavyweight was Mike Tyson, dark and hench with early KO's by the score, set in stone, immutable. I'd try to sell him on Fury (he knew him from Channel 5), and he'd umm and ahh and sort of concede that Tyson was kind of "alright", before reverting to the "but he just looks so **** and fat and clumsy" patter. I ended up giving up after a couple of Fury conversations and started telling him about this knockout guy on the undercards I thought would be more his thing (Joshua was around a year into his pro career at the time and still getting rid of everyone inside 2-3 rounds). I stopped frequenting that premises in early 2015, so I don't know if that guy ever took heed of what I said or remembered it, but I guarantee he would've been creaming his pants over AJ no later than the Kingpin fight, when Joshua really started to blip on the casual radar. Casuals are funny, none of them know a true blue chip from a pink sheet, so, if they really want you to sell them the crap, you might as well just do it. And boxing fans in general, even the supposedly diehard set, not just casuals, can be just as easily impressed by aesthetics, not necessarily in surveying a fighter's build, but in their attraction to ostensibly orderly, wrinkle-free action they can digest without need for real thought or keen discernment. Ease compels people. (It's the same reason so many people can't watch tape of 40's fights and apprehend what's going on in them, so they just assume Billy Graham would be mere cannon fodder for a Rougarou or something.) I lost count of how many times I read about the pattycaking illusion that was Pricey's 'great jab' in those days, as I pondered how the same telegraphed, oafish right uppercut people were going gaga over (the one he clubbered Sexton with) was going to get him countered and hurt at a higher level, wherein he wouldn't even have sufficient experience in the domestic class to get through it, to say nothing of his lack of innate survival instincts (sure enough, it took Thompson less than six minutes to expose that hole). Purely in and of itself, putting aside what I know about the shortcomings of fight fans, I don't get how anybody could have looked at Price and seen anything like a sophisticated animal in him. And even after all they'd been shown, people could still get sucked back in by a win over a complete ham and egger in 2019. After Price beat novelty boxer Doncaster Dave, there were people backing him to do a number on Chisora. Unreal. By the same token, a little flab and an early predilection for a donnybrook aside, I don't get how anyone could have closed their eyes to Fury's budding versatility and the subtle nuances threading through his game and gradually stitching the elements together. EDIT: I realise it's uncharitable to describe AJ as a pink sheet, but I'm talking in relative terms here.
David is such a likeable guy that I wanted him to do well. Problem is that he never made the switch to the professional side of the sport. Price the amateur is Price the pro. He's got monstrous power but he's slow footed and is prone to throwing wild shots leaving himself wide open. I can't help feeling slightly nervous when he gets in the ring these days. I really hope he gets out while he's healthy.
never seen a fighters confidence leave him so quickly after a loss Visibly tense and panicked there after
