Klitschko-Fury is Rocky IV For Real

In tomorrow’s bout at Duesseldorf’s football stadium, Fury, the British challenger named after Mike Tyson, will be a long-odds outsider to defeat the Ukrainian who has ruled the impoverished global heavyweight scene for a decade. That is what it is all about.

“It’s good to be nervous”, Klitschko said. That’s it. We’ll go at it and may the best man win. There is controversy if it is on points sometimes, the wrong judgment, maybe a rematch.

“I’m a 4-1 underdog but Cassius Clay (later to become Muhammad Ali) was a big underdog against Sonny Liston and he knocked him out”. Even if I beat Wlad in one second, is it going to get any bigger than this? “But you know what they say in boxing: Everyone has a plan-until they get hit”. If I don’t allow it, it won’t happen.

As he said: “I pay attention to detail”. There is no if, there is no doubt.

“You want to be emotionless in the ring, but in this case there is motivation”.

Fury has been mouthy throughout the build-up, but appeared to be slightly more pensive at yesterday’s weigh-in. He might do the opposite: opt for the big one and come out like a lunatic for the first two rounds.

“I didn’t believe this fight was going to happen for a long, long time”.

Fury will need to get inside early to short-circuit Klitschko’s comfort zone.

Around 2005, after he had been champion for a few years, still-skeptical American boxing writers likened Klitschko to the steroid-pumped brute Drago, played by Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV. He’s been the undisputed world heavyweight champion since July 2011 when he took the WBA strap from David Haye in a decision victory.

Tune in to Klitschko vs. Fury this Saturday, live on HBO Boxing.

“He is going through a time that he is very insecure”.

“He is undefeated and so he thinks he is the king of the world”, he said.

During their pre-fight staredown this week, Fury asked for a smile “let’s see those teeth”, complimenting him on the way he smells. He is judging other people without his experience…

The tale of the tape tells depicts a frightening reality, that beyond Dereck Chisora – who Fury has beaten comfortably twice – you would struggle to pick a fringe World level heavyweight from the list of fighters who have shared a ring with the 27-year old from the North West of England. But I’ve got Irish heritage. Has he got that stone-cold mentality where nothing penetrates at all?

Middlesbrough’s former Commonwealth Games middleweight gold medallist John Pearce, an amateur rival of Carl Froch: “I was over in the Ukraine in 1997 for a Euro qualifier and even back then the people there were saying the Klitschko brothers trained like professionals even though they had amateur vests on”. He claimed he was chinny because he has been stopped three times and said he was the Trojan Horse to breach his defences. The 39-year-old Klitschko, a pound lighter, again looked as if he could have been sculptured by Phidias. “I’m not trying to be an Irishman”, said Fury. “He is mutton dressed as lamb”.