Thankfully, The Tyson Fury Show did not end when the talking stopped this Saturday. The ?Gypsy King? actually did as promised and put on a brutally beautiful and bloody show in registering a second round stoppage of Tom Schwarz at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
There was no sloppy Muhammad Ali routine from the Irishman. There was no perpetual backpedaling, off-putting awkwardness, and tallying of scorecard points based on an 85-inch reach that allows him to touch an opponent without being touched.
The Tyson Fury we saw on Saturday was one who grabbed victory rather than stave off defeat, one who proved that a 6-foot-9, 260 lb. man CAN generate real power if he would actually plant his feet and use some of his God-given leverage.
As I wrote elsewhere: ?This was Tom Schwarz and not Joe Louis or Joe Frazier?or?Wilder, Ruiz, or Joshua?or even Pulev or Kownacki.? But Fury did what he was supposed to do against a guy like Schwarz, who came into the fight barely ranked among the top ten heavyweights in his native Germany, and he did it in a very entertaining way.
His nose-splitting brutalization of Schwarz offered a glimpse as to how he could, possibly, put everything together and become the star new co-promoter Bob Arum hopes he?ll become. Fury did his shtick, showboated a bit, but then he gave fight fans, especially the all-important casual-curious ones, what they mostly want?bloody carnage.
Of course, all of this was done away from the ESPN main stage, stuck on the subscription-only ESPN+ streaming app where only a limited number of fans could be exposed to what could?ve been a breakthrough moment if it had aired on basic cable. And that begs the question of how, exactly, is Tyson Fury, ESPN?s $100 million heavyweight acquisition, going to electrify the masses if only a few thousand at a time can see him.
By listening to the ESPN+ broadcast crew Saturday night, though, Fury was already a star, ?captivating American fight fans??an assertion made laughable as it was being issued from a half-empty arena and broadcast from a streaming app.
This doesn?t mean that Fury can?t or won?t be a true crossover star in the US. He clearly has all the tools to be just that?the compelling back story, mic skills, charisma, ring ability, and, now, a clear understanding of how important it is for a heavyweight to deliver real, wince-provoking pain. But he?s not there just yet and ESPN?s hard-sell routine could work against him in the same way that the obnoxiously over-the-top HBO star-making hyperbole worked to breed animosity towards some of their guys.
There?s also the silliness of ESPN trying to create a world title for Fury where there is none.
Calling Fury the ?lineal champ??something I?ve lazily done in the past, myself?is intellectually dishonest since he?s not ?the man who beat the man who beat the man? with a lineage tracing back to John L. Sullivan. Fury is, at best, ?the man who beat the man, who never actually beat the man before him and was declared the man in absentia.? If we?re talking literal lineage?and ESPN clearly was pushing that talking point, hard?there hasn?t been a true lineal champ since James J. Jeffries well over a century ago.
But the lineal champ stuff is a boxing nerd?s lament. Most fans just care about being entertained and getting honest value for their time and/or money?and Fury definitely delivered in those areas.
As long as Tyson Fury keeps putting on shows like he did last Saturday, ESPN?s nauseating overhyping and the cringe-worthy efforts to wedge him into history alongside the all-time greats will be overlooked.
