By Geoffrey Ciani: WBC and lineal heavyweight world champion proved once again that he is his own worst enemy, when he escaped with a 10 round split decision victory against Francis Ngannou last weekend.
The WBC belt was not on the line in this one, and the non-title bout was supposed to be nothing more than a one-sided mismatch in favor of the Gypsy King. After all, the 37 year old Ngannou was making his professional debut, and his opponent was the undefeated heavyweight champion.
In many ways this bout was viewed as a money grab on the part of Fury in preparation and anticipation of an expected undisputed showdown against Oleksandr Usyk, the reigning unified IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion. Ngannou, however, had other plans and he actually put up a great challenge, dropping Fury with a crisp counter left in round 3, and taking the champion the distance in a fight where many credible boxing observers believed Ngannou deserved to win.
Fury is clearly a talented boxer with a great abundance of size and skill, and he has (or at least had) a great deal of athleticism for a heavyweight of his massive size. But he has often been his own worst enemy in limiting the full scope of the potential he has displayed. 8 years ago this month, Tyson Fury made a big statement when he dethroned long reigning champion Wladimir Klitschko.
Fury was able to neutralize the potent and methodical offense of one of the longest reigning heavyweight champions in history, where indeed, only the great Joe Louis and the great Larry Holmes had more consecutive title defenses than Wladimir. But Fury made fairly easy work of Klitschko, barely needing to take things out of first gear en route to winning a one sided 12 round unanimous decision.
The newly crowned 27 year old champion had all the potential to perhaps become one of the truly great heavyweights. And through nobody’s fault but his own,he wasted much of his talent and potential, and his recent ordeal with Ngannou is just the latest chapter of Fury sabotaging his own reputation and potential.
This edition of Rummy’s Corner will attempt to explore the history of Tyson Fury being his own worst enemy when it comes to his professional boxing career. Please watch and enjoy the video. This is Rummy’s Corner (produced and narrated by Geoffrey Ciani).
