I've generally stayed out of the drama regarding Fury, i.e. did he duck Joshua or did Joshua duck him, same with Klitschko rematch, Usyk, etc. And this thread is probably going to please no one as I am neither a Fury fanboy or hater. But to understand Tyson Fury, you need to realise that he is highly gifted but lazy (for a top professional, that is). It's no accident that some of his worst performances have been in fights he was supposed to win easily: Seferi, McDermott, etc. He fails to train properly for these fights and pays (or nearly pays) the price. People think he fights to the level of his opposition which may be true, but a good part of it is simply how seriously he prepares. After beating Klitschko, he felt he'd achieved it all and got particularly lazy, hence he kept postponing the fight because he wasn't ready to train that hard anymore. He partied hard and didn't stay in shape. He knew that Klitschko at that point was still very dangerous, and required him to be motivated and to train really hard. He fought Wilder because he had been out in the cold and needed to make a statement again. People thought he was past it and the only way back was to fight top opposition. He was at his best in the second fight having been (in his and many others' opinions) robbed in the first and given a shock after basically being KO'ed and rising from it. In the third fight he got a little lazy again and it showed, he took a lot more damage than he needed to. He didn't really want to fight Joshua because that required hard training, and right now he feels that he deserves a rest after the Wilder trilogy and the Whyte demolition (and yeah Whyte talked enough **** that Fury was motivated to train harder than necessary to win). That's why he kept coming up with deadlines and generally didn't seem that keen. Warren wanted the fight though, and knows that fighting Joshua would force Fury to train hard as he couldn't bear to lose to his major domestic rival, and assuming this Fury should be able to beat current Joshua clearly enough. Hearn eventually decided it was better for Joshua to regain confidence and fight Fury further down the road, which is a major reason the fight didn't happen. But even so, the fact remains that Fury wasn't keen himself. He's now fighting Chisora, as he knows he can train casually and still win easily. Chisora is probably so shot that this is indeed the case. Same with his other pick, Charr. He doesn't really want to fight Usyk because that requires a hell of a lot of training. Perhaps the pressure, or the allure of undisputed will eventually get him onboard with the Usyk, and he may well win that as he will (although one cannot be 100% sure as Fury is unpredictable) train hard and Usyk is getting slower. An average Fury does not beat an average Usyk, but if Fury is truly motivated and trains 100% he has a great chance.
I would say, in defence of his response to beating Klitschko, Fury - despite his bravado and posturing - is a man who wants to be appreciated. Loved even. It's easy to spot people with this kind of insecurity because they act the complete opposite - 'I don't care', 'not bothered what people say', 'couldn't give a toss' etc, etc. Repeated, ad nauseum. He does care and did care back in 2015. And the British media's response to his victory? To vilify him for some homophobic comments he made and calling him to be banned from the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year ceremony which is a reasonably big deal over here. They lauded Frank Bruno when he won a version of the world title. Lewis too - rightly so. And 2015 they had a collective hard-on for Joshua, so-much-so the Eddie Chambers incident was later airbrushed. But Fury, the man who lives to be loved, was ostracised despite an achievement which would have be trumpeted had it been any of the other three. From that point we can witness the years of decline prior to his rebirth as a viable world level fighter. No, I'm not absolving him of blame - you're right he has a lazy, distractable streak to his character - but his outstanding success became a low point. That would impact anyone's attitude towards the sport. Neither do I doubt his mental health issues, as some do. As someone very close to a person suffering Bipolar, I recognise so many patterns to his behaviour and it would take a remarkable piece of acting spanning more than a decade to pull off such a convincing deception. My point is, Fury is a complex character - a combination of characters actually - and he's as unsure as anyone else which will show its face on any given day. Hence the constant contradictions - retiring then coming back etc. We all know the backstory. In short, I agree with your assessment but it also needs a wider context...
More or less what I think. Fury has trouble concentrating on the task at hand and remaining focused. The biggest thing he could do for himself is not in the gym but on the couch of a sports psychologist.
Yeah, a lot of that might be true tbf, but how to know, really? It's a reasonable opinion is the way i'd put it.
True, we can't really know for sure, just try to make sense of his behaviour and assess his standing and legacy through the lens of what we know.
Yeah, I think he has been lazy and indulgent in his career between fights, though does seem to train hard once he gets into camp but admitted that he did a lot of 'fat camps' due to his behaviour between fights. He clearly has discipline issues to say the least. And fights fat all the time, including now. But I think it's believable he had 'mental problems' after Klitschko I since when you look back he was saying he wanted to retire after the win and was saying weird depressive things, then that strange 'gloves off' where he's talking about suicide, then Helenius saying he flipped out in the gym etc. So I don't think he ducked the Wlad rematch. And remember his team pulled him out. Also he seemed confident straight after the win that he could do better. He definitely self-destructed there, but that's a bit different to a duck. The fact he ultimately faced Wilder three times tends to disprove the theory he ducked dangerous fighters. He almost got KO'd twice facing Wilder. And yes, he could have got out the third fight if he really wanted, just had to pay for it in some way. It's not believable he ducked AJ just now as the fight was offered with plenty of time and it was Hearn-J who were happy to let it go. It's mental to claim Hearn-J were desperate for that fight when they showed zero urgency. The Chisora fight is a disgrace and a sham. He'll likely fight Usyk. Usyk is being ridiculous with his 'Christian fasting' demands, which must include like .01% of Christians now. I wonder, did he fornicate outside of marriage? Does he use contraception? Well, we know he does the second, because there are hardly any Little Usyks running around, and almost certainly the first. But now he's forced to fast to follow devout biblical laws? Come on. It's laughable.
Understanding Tyson Fury: 6'9" 205cm of inside fightingness Can't be beat by a man born of a woman Masturbates 7 days a week and twice on a Sunday
There are facts in here mixed with assumptions we have to make but I can see this being 90% correct based on how he looks for the fights you described. Tyson is an interesting guy and I like him but I think he does at times fk around in camp and it shows. Good post
Fury has a tendency to get fat when he's not active but when he's in the gym he trains like a demon, hence his ability to lose 10 stone in as many months and then jump into a championship fight. He's very all or nothing in that respect. Fury didn't have to fight Wilder within 6 months of coming back from where he was and having two journeyman tune ups, he could have had another two or three tune ups if he wanted and no one without an agenda would have criticised him. Fighting 40-0 long reigning KO artist A-side Wilder, in America, that soon after returning, was extremely impulsive and lo and behold it very nearly cost him. Hearn and Joshua were not in a rush to fight Wilder in America. Even against pointfighter Parker they felt they needed a bodyguard referee to give AJ the periods of rest he needed to go 12 rounds, plus the dodgy scorecards. Wlad + Wilder x3 all on the road is more risk than any current top 5 heavyweight has taken in their career. Thus those claiming that "Fury doesn't want x or y fight" have to try to diminish this by claiming they weren't "real risks". If Fury dominates Usyk then Usyk will be retconned as not posing any threat to Fury because he's too small, featherfisted, shopworn etc. and there will be another great hope lined up that Fury is supposed to be avoiding, who represents the first true "real risk". Fury's been talking about fighting Chisora again for years; in the interview immediately after Chisora 2, back in a 2019 interview before Wallin and in 2021 Fury said a Chisora trilogy fight was part of his 5 fight plan or whatever. Charr was probably never on the cards and was mentioned to soften the blow. Chisora 3 represents a good payday for both men and a training camp + activity for Fury before undisputed, that's about it.
