Tyson Fury, in characteristic fashion, announced his retirement from boxing in a profanity-laced tweet, only to retract his outlandish claim. Still, whether Fury will ever fight again is up for debate, but regardless of how the brash, outlandish Brit opts to proceed, an extended hiatus from boxing and the spotlight is necessary.
If Tyson Fury’s latest twitter upchucks are to be taken at face value, his reign as heavyweight champion will either be completely forgotten or merely remembered as one of the most ignominious in the sport’s history. Since defeating Wladimir Klitschko in a massive upset last November, Fury has publicly unravelled while failing to defend his title.
The possibility that Fury is struggling psychologically is serious and should not be ridiculed. However, Fury testing positive for cocaine, his being declared “medically unfit” to defend his title against Wladimir Klitschko in a crucial rematch and his history of bigotry and misogyny are personal disgraces that have been ruthlessly played out in public.
From a removed perspective, Tyson Fury’s behavior, which was always questionable, has completely devolved into attention-seeking crassness or delusional aggrandizement. When Fury was still fighting, some of this was mitigated; he may be a complete lout, but he can box.
Hahahaha u think you will get rid of the GYPSYKING that easy!!! I’m here to stay. #TheGreatest just shows u what the Medea are like. Tut tut
— TYSONMONTANA (@Tyson_Fury) October 3, 2016
At this point, though, Tyson Fury needs to go away. He rarely opens his mouth without causing controversy, and his inability to get into fighting shape is insulting to championship-level prizefighting. Sure, Fury doesn’t technically owe the public anything, but his actions since last November have now stripped him of relevance — not to mention his titles.
If Tyson Fury is to regroup — and one hopes he can, if only to achieve some balance in life — doing so away from public scrutiny is important. But, like Donald Trump, one has to wonder — based on established patterns — whether celebrity status and dominating the news cycle matters more to Fury than anything of genuine substance. This is all conjecture, though, because so much about what’s going on with Fury is unknown.
Fans and pundits will likely run wild with Tyson Fury’s tweets, and assumptions will be made. Fury, like few other fighters, inspires intensely polarized opinions from those who follow boxing, but it’s important to move past that divide in order to let him privately sort things out. Speculating about mental illness or a media crusade and conspiracy against Fury misses the point about this messy situation. There’s a compelling argument to be made that Fury is his own worst enemy, and retracting his retirement claim to expose inherent biases in the media supports that.
Ironically, Fury would have been best suited for the era where heavyweight champions were as much celebrities as fighters — where boxers became vaudeville stars and went on world tours while defending their title maybe once per year. There was also an implied authority that came with being heavyweight champion, as if this distinction carried an all-encompassing gravitas. It seems like Tyson Fury is wallowing in a post-Klitschko hangover — disappointed by a sport that he assumed promised more.
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