Tyson Fury has given boxing fans a host of crazy memories in boxing, but perhaps none crazier than his pre-fight antics ahead of the biggest fight of his career.
In 2015, Tyson Fury had defeated Derek Chisora for the second time. Fury had survived Steve Cunningham. Fury had punched himself in the face against Lee Swaby and Fury had gotten himself a shot at the world title.
‘The Gypsy King’ was set to face Wladimir Klitschko, who had won 19 world title contests in a row, 14 of which came by stoppage.
Fury’s fight with ‘Dr Steelhammer’ would likely be the toughest and most gruelling of his career, and yet, in the pre-fight presser, he turned up dressed as Batman.
Tyson Fury staged a fake fight whilst dressed as Batman in front of Wladimir Klitschko
Ahead of the fight, which many believed would prove to be too much for the Brit, Fury ran into the press conference with Klitschko dressed as Batman, prompting laughter from everyone involved, including Klitschko.
Soon after, someone entered dressed as The Joker, prompting Fury to attack him in a staged performance interrupting the presser.
Dressed in normal attire, Fury rejoined the press conference pretending to be none the wiser regarding Batman’s antics.
Fury defeated Klitschko, who dropped Anthony Joshua, by unanimous decision, marking the penultimate fight of the Ukrainian’s career.
Tyson Fury’s mind games over Wladimir Klitschko began years before their fight
Ahead of their fight, Fury and Klitschko spoke to one another to promote the fight, with Johnny Nelson as the mediator.
Fury, who AJ beat in sparring, told a story of how he trained with Klitschko when he was rising the ranks, and how even then he had worked to secure a mental victory over the champion.
He said of a time the pair were sat in a sauna with a few other fighters, and eventually it was just the two of them in there together. He said:
“It gets down to him and I’m over the other side. I’ve only had 12 or 13 fights, but still, in my mind I was mentally in a competition with him.”
“I was prepared to die in that sauna before I got out. I stayed in for like 40 minutes.”
Klitschko denied any knowledge of the event, though Fury continued:
“He got out first. I thought, ‘Mental victory.'”
After another attempt to deny it, Fury told Klitschko: “You can say you don’t know what I’m talking about, but I know and you know it did exist.”