Don’t get distracted by Fury’s repellent behaviour, it obscures the hard truth: He is NOT one of the boxing greats, writes OLIVER HOLT

About a year after Lennox Lewis became the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, he fought David Tua, a heavy-handed New Zealander, at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas in November 2000 for the WBC, IBF and IBO versions. of the crown.

It was my first time attending a heavyweight world title fight in Vegas and I bought into the hype about Tua’s devastating left hook and the evidence of a record that showed he had knocked out decent fighters like John Ruiz and Hasim Rahman. .

The thing was, Tua was a little boy. At least for a heavyweight boxer. He was 6 feet tall, compared to Lewis, who was 6 feet 4 inches tall and nearing the end of the prime of his career. Still, many wondered if Tua’s power would cause the champion any discomfort.

Lewis won by what is known in the trade as a ‘lopsided’ points decision. That’s another way of saying he won pretty much every round. It was a dominant victory, so much so that those who had hoped for fireworks called it a “nasty celebration” and complained about the lack of danger.

I still remember it as one of the best boxing shows I ever saw. It was the sweet science brought to life. Lewis taught Tua, and everyone watching at ringside, a boxing lesson on how to neutralize a potentially difficult opponent.

The champion kept the challenger out the entire time. He made him eat a stiff left jab round after round after round. He reduced Tua to throwing wild haymakers that whizzed through the fresh air. When the final bell rang, Lewis barely had a mark on him.

Making too accurate a comparison between Tua and Oleksandr Usyk would be easy. Usyk is a more experienced fighter. And he’s two inches taller than Tua. But the fact remains that when Tyson Fury took the fight to the Ukrainian on Saturday, he was blessed with many of the same physical advantages over his opponent that Lewis had over Tua.

One of boxing’s oldest sayings is that ‘a good big’ beats a good little ‘un’ and perhaps that is why the majority of the sport’s pundits chose Fury to beat Usyk in Riyadh. But Fury doesn’t have the same skills, ability or intelligence as Lewis and he couldn’t get the job done.

There were moments, in the middle rounds of their epic encounter in Saudi Arabia, when Fury made the fight look like a physical mismatch, but then he got distracted by the need to taunt and show off Usyk for the crowd and he let Usyk , a master strategist, to adjust his plan and fight his way back into the fight. No wonder Lewis, who was ringside, criticized Fury’s tactics.

Much of the aftermath of the fight was focused on praising a remarkable performance from Usyk, whose split decision victory over Fury made him the first fighter to hold the undisputed version of the heavyweight crown since Lewis all those years ago. The victory undoubtedly makes the Ukrainian the greatest heavyweight of this generation.

There has also been a lot of commentary about the boorish behavior of Fury and his entourage before and after the fight. His father, John, headbutted a member of Usyk’s crew in the days leading up to the clash and Fury himself suggested after the fight that Usyk won because people were “siding with a country at war.”

I don’t put too much stock in either of those things. They are certainly less important than the way boxing has done its best to look the other way about Fury’s two-year drug ban on nandrolone, an anabolic steroid, eight years ago, as if it never happened and presenting him as a people’s champion .

I have a little experience in these matters and perhaps it’s enough to say that if you’re expecting pleasantries and sweet decorum from Fury and his entourage, you’re in for a rather nasty surprise. Many of Fury’s views are abhorrent. This also applies to a large part of his behavior. But this is boxing, not tea and toast in the palace.

As for the Ukraine comment, on this occasion I think Fury deserves some slack. He had just gotten into a fierce battle. A few minutes earlier, he staggered around the ring in the ninth round, barely in control of his senses. To put his comment about Ukraine into perspective, a few seconds later he wished everyone a Happy New Year. He didn’t really feel like it.

However, all this may have obscured a harder truth for Fury and his supporters. His defeat by a man who gave so much away to him in terms of height, reach and weight has once and for all exploded the myth that Fury is one of the greatest heavyweights to ever grace the sport.

Usyk certainly falls into that category, but Fury does not. Wladimir Klitschko was a good champion, not a great one, and Fury dethroned him in 2015, a few weeks before Klitschko’s 40th birthday, when the Ukrainian fighter was one fight away from the end of his career.

Most of Fury’s reputation rests on that and his trilogy of matches with Deontay Wilder, a huge puncher but a limited fighter. Fury drew one and won two of those fights. But he needed more than that to overcome Usyk and he didn’t have it. He did not lack courage, nor skill, but he lacked discipline and application, and it cost him.

Fury is a gifted, courageous and extremely resilient fighter who showed all of these qualities in his fight with Usyk. The way he recovered from the beating he received in the ninth round was almost unbelievable. It was incredibly impressive and extremely courageous.

Apart from the minor drug ban, he has been quite the world champion. And he has been one of Britain’s best heavyweights, perhaps second only to Lewis. None of these accolades should be denied him. But on Saturday night at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh he came face to face with true greatness and when the moment came, Fury couldn’t meet his gaze.

Chelsea would be angry if he fired Pochettino

There still seems to be some suggestion that the lasting gift to English football that is the combined brain trust of Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali is considering sacking Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino sometime in the next two weeks.

Without the sheer incompetence of many of the other decisions they’ve made this season, this is the kind of suggestion that would be laughed off the street.

After finally coming to terms with the chaos left to him by Chelsea’s owners and ending the club’s season with a string of results that made it look like they would be ready to challenge for the top four again next season, would it be? It is absolute madness to fire Pochettino now.

Of course, that means that’s probably exactly what Boehly and Eghbali will do.

Klopp makes peace with the press

Among the many insights Jurgen Klopp gave about his time at Anfield during his departure from Liverpool last week, he spoke more thoughtfully than most managers about his relationship with the press.

“The point is,” Klopp said, “you want to know exactly what I can’t tell you. You want to write exactly what the audience is not allowed to know. I know we had a few issues every now and then, but it was never personal, even though it sounded quite personal. I am at peace with all of you.

“If I were sitting in front of a referees’ meeting right now, I’m not sure I could say the same thing.”