Job Done

Fury survives bad cut to beat Wallin – now for Wilder again.

- Declan Taylor

PUNTERS here in Las Vegas, the city where nothing is quite as it seems, would be forgiven for thinking that the all-singing, all-dancing 6ft 9ins figure of Tyson Fury was little more than another novelty act who had pitched up on the Strip to make a quick buck.

Giant graphics of his face spent the whole of the week in a perennial cross-dissolve with people like Bruno Mars and David Copperfield on the jumbotrons hoisted high above Las Vegas Boulevard as the line between his particular brand of entertainment and outright violence continued to blur.

Mexican Independence weekend appeared to give Fury a new lease of life when it came to his usual hubris. He wore two different Lucha Libre masks at various points in the week, had one of his team members wave a giant Mexican flag wherever he deemed it remotely appropriate and made reference to Donald Trump’s infamous wall. He even upgraded his Gypsy King moniker to “El Rey Gitanos”.

Not everyone liked it. Mexico’s first ever world heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jnr, for example, told Fury to “stay in his lane” and not use his nation like a costume. Others absolutely loved it. Wherever people fell on the issue, however, they were watching.

And that was the whole point of this fight, the second of his mega-money deal with ESPN and Top Rank, which came exactly 13 weeks after the destruction of Tom Schwarz just across the road at the MGM Grand. The idea this time was to supply Fury with a better-known foe at the bigger, better T-Mobile Arena in a bid to further introduce him to the American public ahead of the big sell for his rematch with Deontay Wilder next year.