One of the most infamous clips of Tyson Fury is of the troubled heavyweight champion smashing an uppercut into his own face against Lee Swaby in 2009.
In a sense, that clip is indicative of the 28-year-old’s career – he is his own worst enemy. From foul-mouthed religious rants to allegations he failed a drugs test months prior to his seismic upset of Wladimir Klitschko in Germany last November, his career has taken one dark turn after another. Now, it seems, after reportedly failing a second drugs test, this time for cocaine, there is nowhere left to run.
It’s not foolish to believe his reign as world heavyweight champion, an epoch both strange and captivating in equal measure, is over. It simply has to be, for the interests of all parties involved.
Stripping him of the belts is a necessity and it will undoubtedly make things better, not worse. The alphabet soup have grown increasingly irritable given the WBA, WBO and IBO champion has stagnated their most treasured and prestigious division for close to a year. And you can say what you like about Klitschko’s long and often dull reign but he was, if nothing else, an active champion.
With Fury out of the title picture, perhaps indefinitely, it would allow the top of the division to progress. Anthony Joshua, Joseph Parker, Luis Ortiz, Klitschko and even David Haye all have the ability to get this sleeping giant of a division moving again.
IF positive test for cocaine is upheld, Tyson Fury set to lose WBO and WBA heavyweight titles but may be no ban because out of competition
— Chris McKenna (@cmckennasport) September 30, 2016
For the Manchester-born fighter, it’s time to sit back on the sidelines. His supporters, despite all his past transgressions, rejoiced when he shook up the world in November because his larger-than-life and unpredictable persona was viewed as a saviour for heavyweight boxing.
But in the ensuing months, he has taken hostage of the belts and made comments even his staunchest supporters struggle to defend.
In that time, Joshua has earned universal acclaim while Wilder has been making new fans of his own as an active champion. Fury, and what he offered in his own unique way, is no longer needed or welcome.
And when you examine the timeline of events and the cloud which they sit beneath, you can even make the argument, if all is proven to be true, that Fury is one of the most disgraced heavyweight champions in history.
Consider this, he first pulled out of the Klitschko rematch with an ankle injury on June 24 before it subsequently emerged he had received a ban on the same day, which was lifted subject to an impending tribunal, for allegedly testing positive to the steroid Nandrolone, which Fury later denied.
There’s a degree of suspicion then, that as Fury pulled out of his Klitschko obligation yet again due to being “medically unfit”, it surfaces he actually popped for cocaine the day prior to the announcement.
Boxing simply deserves better. Fury may well be battling mental health issues as is being claimed by his camp, but it seems a little coincidental. When you mix in his outrageous comments and general unprofessional behaviour in press conferences which is ill-befitting of the heavyweight champion of the world and by definition a major representative of the sport, it all adds to a toxic mix.
Fury may well be loved for taking hits – even from himself – and for his straight talking but now is the time for silence, enforced or otherwise.
