Team Fury Relishes Wladimir Klitschko World Title Opportunity

By Peter Fury

So it’s on – Tyson Fury vs. Wladimir Klitschko, for the heavyweight championship of the world. It’s nice to be so far out from the fight, with all the politics and business side of it behind us, and know exactly where we stand. We’re absolutely delighted.

The business side of making fights like this is the worst part of boxing, so it’s great to get it all out of the way and put it to the back of our minds; both camps know what they’ve got to do and they can just concentrate now on the boxing side of it.

As for Tyson, he’s totally motivated for this fight. No surprises there. This is his fourth week in, his weight is coming off nicely and we’re very happy with him. I just can’t wait for it to come round now. It’s a massive occasion and it makes us all determined to go that extra mile.

Some have asked me if there’s a danger of Tyson overtraining for this fight – starting too early, peaking too soon. Nonsense. We’re very professional at what we do, otherwise we wouldn’t be here; we wouldn’t be in the position we’re in. Only amateurs overtrain and people who don’t know what they’re doing.

I liaise with the best strength and conditioners around the world. We’ve got the best knowledge and it’s all science-based. We know when to push, when not to push and the type of body fat he needs to have at each stage of the preparation.

It’s very, very complex, but it’s your job to know all of that. That’s why you’re a trainer and manager looking after a fighter. You’ve got to do everything – food, conditioning, boxing and so on. It’s a round-the-clock job. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you shouldn’t be doing it. There’s a lot of people doing it that don’t know what they’re doing and that’s why they fail.

In my opinion, this is 100% the best time to have the fight. Let’s look at reality here: Tyson is never going to get beaten up by a smaller guy. He’s too big, and now he’s using his boxing [skills] like he should be using them and he’s almost playing with smaller opponents. It’s too easy for him.

The only people out there who could give Tyson a fight – a genuine fight – are Wladimir Klitschko and Deontay Wilder. Apart from those two, nobody else can. He’d play with all the other heavyweights. That’s not because he’s supremely talented, it’s simply because they’re either too inexperienced and not ready for him or he’s just too big.

There’s nobody else in the division, aside from Klitschko and Wilder, who can even test Tyson at this stage. Fights against Klitschko and Wilder, though, are proper 50/50 fights. They can go either way. These are the fights we get our teeth into. We can keep beating six-foot-two heavyweights until the cows come home, but what’s the point?

Wilder is 34-0, so has officially had more fights than Tyson, but I only see him as having had two proper fights. The first was against Bermane Stiverne and the second was against Eric Molina, which was a fight that ended up being a struggle for him. Those are the only two times he’s faced decent heavyweights who gave him a fight.

Wilder is improving all the time and he’ll get better with the type of fights he’s now having. He wasn’t really prepared for a world title shot when he faced Stiverne, even though he won. Stiverne was just the right opponent at the right time. He was also very poor that night.

Wilder, though, isn’t what you’d call ‘world championship ready’. He’s not good enough or seasoned enough yet to hold that title and look at the rest of the division and think, I’ve got the beating of all of you. There are plenty of fighters out there who could trouble him at this stage.

But, with each fight, he keeps getting better and he learns more and more. He can box, he’s athletic and he’s a talented kid. In many ways, Wilder has been a victim of his own punch power – he’s been winning fights and creating a long, unbeaten run, but he’s learnt absolutely nothing in the process.

Tyson, on the other hand, has learnt plenty along the way – he’s had tough fights, easy fights, he’s faced big guys, small guys and he’s dragged himself off the floor to win. He’s more than ready to take the world heavyweight title from Wladimir Klitschko on October 24.