Press conferences are often boring. They serve an important function, but it’s hard to distinguish one from another. Sometimes someone gets slapped. Sometimes someone gets bitten. Sometimes someone gets glassed. But decorum is usually maintained, for which we can be grateful.
But Tyson Fury (24-0, 18 KOs), the undefeated heavyweight contender from Wilmslow, Cheshire, United Kingdom, who is slated to fight Wladimir Klitschko (64-3, 53 KOs), from Kiev, Ukraine, by way of Zhangiztobe, Kazakhstan, on October 24 at ESPRIT Arena in Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, is unpredictable.
That unpredictability revealed itself Wednesday at the Hilton Hotel in Syon Park, Brentford, London, at a press conference in advance of the big fight.
Klitschko, looking sharp in a bespoke suit and sporting a Jack Dempsey haircut, was as serious, sober, and single-minded as usual. Fury, by contrast, was as much fun as a barrel of monkeys.
Wearing a Batman costume, complete with mask and cape, Fury entered the room to the Neal Hefti classic, “Batman’s Theme,” the title song of the 1966 Batman TV series. When it was Fury’s turn to speak, he jumped over the table, knocking Klitschko’s WBA, IBF, WBO, IBO and RING belts to the floor, before pretending to wrestle an associate dressed as The Joker, one of Batman’s many nemeses, before storming out of the room.
When Fury returned, without his Batman costume, he looked no less ridiculous in a three-piece plaid suit with a striped tie. Gesticulating wildly, Fury said pretty much what he said at last month’s presser.
“You’ve never fought a Gypsy King before,” he crowed. “I cannot wait. Welcome to my city, welcome to my town, UK baby. It’s a very personal mission for me to rid boxing of a boring person like you. I’ve fallen asleep listening to you. You have as much charisma as my underpants—zero, none! You are a robotic person who is not exciting to watch. Jab, jab, hold, that’s all you do.”
Fury needs some new material and I’ve got just the person for the job.
“You are boring and all of Europe wants to see you get beaten,” continued Fury. “You have a chin like a piece of glass and when I hit it, it will explode like this glass against that wall. What am I afraid of? A man who has had 20 defenses against bums? I’m not interested in your titles. I’m only interested in breaking your face in.”
Klitschko played the straight man to Fury’s loose cannon.
“It was a very entertaining press conference,” he said when the dust had settled, “probably the most entertaining of the past 45 years since I was involved in boxing. It was not boring. I was just looking at it and I couldn’t believe what was going on. On one hand it was childish, but on the other hand it was entertaining.”
Trying his hand at medical diagnosis, Klitschko said, “Tyson Fury acted like a very unstable and insecure person who is trying to cover up his insecurities with all the statements, screaming and jumping on the table or wrestling with The Joker. I think the man needs therapy because there are a lot of psychological issues and bipolarity.
“On the 24th of October he will get the therapy from Dr. Klitschko.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gLxpEk8Bpk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHxyD1lJqSg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQLqQjC2gJA
This article was penned by the author who is not related to the WBA and the statements, expressions or opinions referenced herein are that of the author alone and not the WBA.
