Fury v Wlad - Unwittingly the greatest Psyche job in Boxing History !!

Fury didn't know it at the time but he won that fight before it started...One of the thickest fighters in the history of the Sport outsmarted probably the smartest...(Not that he had a clue about it)..

Like all monsters in the Horror movies once they lose their mystique they become less scary... You get a handle on them..Wlad is/was an expert at gaining confidence from opponents by psycho analysis..

With Haye and Joshua...Wlad could humanize his opponents....Haye's nervous performance on the HBO face to face..Joshua's respectful words prefight all offered information to his analytic brain.....Which was confidence building and comforting against worthy opposition..

Wlad though smart isn't the most confident of fighters....Hence his safety first style..

Wlad like most sportsmen needs the reassurance of knowing his adversary..

However when someone is going ape crap at the first press conference and then running around as Bat man at the second you have the unfortunate problem of thinking the guy is capable of anything...

When a guy is in another World to you...Checking for vital signs like spoken words and body language are a waste of time...Comfort zones disappear..

Plus when you are both in the ring before the intros and he is still grinning and shouting at you....It is more unnerving because it is Showtime and he is still crazy and unpredictable..

Wlad threw 14 punches a round not because he was stiff but because he'd lost his Bollox...

Best Psyche job in history....Just a shame he didn't realise he was performing it !!

Nice piece Truss, and very well put. I think that Uncle Pete deserves a mention here too though - it was his gameplan which worked and gave Tyson the win. Just a shame that it was one of the worst heavyweight title fights ever shown on tv.

I have no really strong opinion either way on whether or not Fury's antics before the fight impacted Wlad's performance. Granted, Fury's boobery before the bout was probably unlike anything Wlad had faced before - but so too, perhaps, was Fury's combination of size, ability and sound tactics. Wlad had spent years fighting opponents who, at any one time, might have boasted one or two of those things, but never all three at once. Couple that with the fact that Wlad was a little long in the tooth as well, and I'm not sure if he was particularly psyched out. Can't rule it out either though, I guess.

But I do think people do Fury a disservice when they characterise him as 'thick'. Nothing of the sort, for me. Uneducated, sure, but definitely not lacking in independent or creative thinking. Amongst all his bluster and impulsive daft outbursts, there are plenty of moments of sense and reflection.