He has spoken of spending time on the driving range at his local golf club in northwest England to improve his right hand by “putting my shoulder into the shot, really driving it through.” And of his pride at the way he has come back from mental health problems and issues of drug use to become the No. 1 heavyweight and, at one time or other, the holder of each of the belts in the division.
“There’s nothing more for me to achieve,” he said. Whyte has his own memorable back-story, though, involving being drawn into London’s gang culture in his youth following his move to Britain from Jamaica, a short stint in prison, and a two-year suspension from boxing for testing positive for a banned stimulant.
He spent so long getting overlooked for a shot at the world heavyweight title, despite being mandatory challenger, that he wondered if his time would ever come. Whyte is largely unknown, except for in boxing circles in Britain. This is his big chance to make a name for himself, sending Fury into retirement in the process.
“It’s victory by any means necessary,” Whyte said. “. I’m not scared to take risks, I’ve taken risks my whole life so it’s nothing new. I’m ready to rock and roll.”
He should have too much for Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs), who is stockily built and enjoys turning fights into slugfests with his energy-sapping body punches. Certainly Fury, who is of Irish-Gypsy heritage and comes from a bloodline of bare-knuckle champions, is the more skilful of the two boxers.
What remains to be seen is whether Fury has taken his eye off the ball in recent weeks amid the controversy surrounding his links with Daniel Kinahan, one of the leaders of an organized crime gang for whom a reward of $5 million was offered by the U.S. Treasury Department for information that will lead to its destruction or arrest and conviction.
So much comes out of Tyson Fury’s mouth during fight week that it’s hard to know which aspects to gloss over and what to take seriously from one of boxing’s most colorful and controversial characters. Yet, on one matter, the world heavyweight champion appears to be consistent. His title defense against Dillian Whyte on Saturday is going to be his last fight before retirement.metasports
“I’m getting out healthy and in one piece. Undefeated,” the self-styled “Gypsy King” said. “Tune in now, because you’re never going to get to see big `GK’ in action again after this. This is it.”