We don?t want to jump to conclusions. Fair is fair, innocent until proven guilty, it might have something Fury ate?
Heavyweight champion of the world Tyson Fury needs to have his head examined. With his WBA/WBO/Ring Magazine heavyweight belts in jeopardy after having been declared ?mentally unfit? the October 29 rematch with Klitschko another time, the big man with the big ambition may also be a big hypocrite.
ESPN has reported that Fury tested positive for cocaine after failing a random Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) urine test conducted on September 22, in the run up to the fight with Klitschko.
A letter from VADA president Dr. Margaret Goodman sent to Fury and published by ESPN reads, ?This letter is to advise you that the ?A? sample urine specimen number 4006253 collected from Tyson Fury on September 22, 2016 in Lancaster, England through his participation in the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) program has been analyzed for anabolic agents, diuretics, beta-2 agonists, stimulants and drugs of abuse. The results of the analysis are as follows: Adverse. Urine specimen contains benzoylecgonine (cocaine).
?Mr. Fury has the right to promptly request analysis of the ?B? sample at his expense.?
Fury took the news in stride. He posted a photo of his head photoshopped onto Al Pacino?s body in one of the actor?s signature roles. Scarface/Fury looks calculating, scowling and sinister on the cusp of conquering the world, while playing peek-a-boo behind a mountain range of blow.
There?s a hash tag beneath the photo. It reads: #Tysonmontana
We don?t want to jump to conclusions. Fair is fair, innocent until proven guilty, it might have something Fury ate. Granted, he has no more need for the establishment and the tripe they espouse than he has for those who don?t find him fascinating. But the handful of us who consider the heavyweight title sacred, and not a big red rubber ball for a child, think Fury is an embarrassment. His saga, somewhat matter of fact and routine, is less about ?severe depression? than about having too much of a good time to remain heavyweight champion of the world.
Despite his old school customs, his old school ways, his old school way of thinking, Fury has some explaining to do. He imagines he?s a traditionalist, upholder of the old verities, a knight in shining armor placed on God?s earth to save mankind from itself. But there?s something of the anarchic punk rocker?the screw you, take it in the eye, take in the arse?attitude in the soon to be former champion. Fury?s outsider status is genuine. He?s no more fraudulent than Johnny Rotten. He is who he appears to be, with or without cocaine.
I admire his rambunctiousness, the endearing yet threatening idiot savant that yearns to be patted on the head, as if his head could be reached. Were it not for boxing and what he achieved and appears to have thrown away, Fury would be of middling interest.
Boxing deserves better. We?ve come a long way from Gene Tunney. We?ve come a long way from Wladimir Klitschko. Klitschko?s manager, Bernd B?nte, upon hearing the cocaine allegation, told ESPN, ?I think Fury is probably the most unworthy heavyweight champion in history, not only because of this situation but because of the whole package of his sexist comments, his anti-Semitic comments and his homophobic comments.?
Once upon a time, boxing in faraway Regency England was called the ?noble art?; a bit of poetic license, perhaps, but for good reason. What is more poetic, not to say more noble and artful, than one man beating another senseless? Some consider it barbaric, beyond the pale.
But the romance of boxing endures, warts and all, with or without Tyson Fury.
