The Mancunian’s display against Deontay Wilder has complicated the immediate future of the heavyweight division
When Tyson Fury got up from the canvas to finish like a wounded bull in the 12th round of his achingly unfair draw with Deontay Wilder in a faraway ring, he not only moved alongside his shocked opponent and Anthony Joshua as an unbeaten claimant to heavyweight supremacy. He single-handedly made the struggle with gloves a very human experience again. That makes him genuine box-office.
Fury is no Muhammad Ali, but he revives memories of that era when charisma had a believable link to its classical roots: “a divinely conferred power or talent”, as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it. Pointing to the skies, Fury said later his belief in God was what made him rise from semi-consciousness and batter Wilder all the way to the final bell, securing his place at the top of the division with the previously awed American, and Joshua.
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