The tragedy of the Gypsy King

You can dowplay any guy like that.
Fury pissed me of in recent years but he still has:
- great mobility and conditioning fit his size
- only guy to shut down Wlad by decision in Germany.
- greatest comeback along with Foreman after being a parade float.
- beating arguably the hardest puncher in history 3x times.
- arguably the greatest recovery ability
- Gave Usyk the tiughest fight of his career thus far and even schooled him for a third of the fight.

I mean, sure it could have been better and he isnt some h2h legend like fanboys make him out to be but he still accomplished things and isnt a bum either. Its still a good fun heavyweight while also being a very frustrating one.

 

- great mobility and conditioning fit his size -
Agree

- only guy to shut down Wlad by decision in Germany.
Wlad was nearly 40 and pretty much done. Fury was in his absolute prime and won a snoozefest of a fight.

- greatest comeback along with Foreman after being a parade float.
Not even close to Foreman's comeback. Foreman was almost 10 years older than Fury when he beat Moorer and had been out of the game for a decade.

- beating arguably the hardest puncher in history 3x times.
Wilder has an inflated record against cab drivers and doormen. Plenty of guys cracked harder than Wilder. And Fury didn't beat him 3 times.

- arguably the greatest recovery ability
On what basis? He recovers well but gets chinned a lot.

- Gave Usyk the tiughest fight of his career thus far and even schooled him for a third of the fight.
So he should. he's 6 feet 9 inches tall and north of 260lb. Usyk is a very small heavyweight by today's standards.

There's nothing exceptional about Tyson Fury at all, aside from his size. I refer you back to his CV. It's not that impressive compared to the genuinely great heavyweights.

 

Terrible post.

 

Whatever.

 

“It’s not that the giraffe can dance well, it’s that it can dance at all.”
This is the second gem I’ve read today - bravo to you, brother Malph

 

The tragedy is Fury was talented, but not as good as he thought he was. So when he decided to inexplicably retire at the peak of his athletic powers, it made things even worse. Even if he didn't become an alcoholic, obese coke-head for 3 years he'd still proverbially be taking 1 step forward and 2 steps backwards by getting out of shape and being inactive. He did NOT have the luxury to take so many layoffs and balloon up and down in weight.

While he was guzzling pints, his rivals Joshua, Wilder, Parker, and Usyk were sharpening their skills and facing the best. So in spite of the fact he had above average raw talent and could fight very effectively despite being so tall and awkward, he did himself a tremendous disservice with his bad habits. Even when he came back and took the sport seriously, he was still often overweight and didn't face very many of the best fighters. I mean, 3 goddamn fights with Chisora...? Tom Schwarz? Francis Ngannou...? No need to elaborate. Fury showed the world who he really was: an erratic, inconsistent fighter with horrible habits who looked like King Kong at his best, but looked like Homer Simpson at his worst. If he was "consistent and dedicated" he wouldn't be Fury.

 

I’m not so sure it would have mattered. Usyk put a lot of pressure on Fury and that wore on him. For a fighter of Fury’s size his energy level will drain faster so it is important for him to control the pace- like he did against Wilder II & III, but Usyk took that away from him.