The Beltline: Tyson Fury and Derek Chisora ​​find the prospect of a non-boxing life scarier than any heavyweight

Not unlike most boxers, heavyweights Tyson Fury and Derek Chisora ​​admit the idea of ​​retiring scares them, writes Elliot Worsell

Over the years, I’ve come to realize that the career path of a professional boxer will often mirror Dirk Diggler’s career trajectory in the 1997 film. Boogie nightwith combat in lieu of pornography and a gift carried in two fists as opposed to a pair of blue jeans.

It begins, this journey, with a lost soul looking for a way out or some direction and confirmation. This then leads them into the arms of the first person to compliment them on their gift, followed by years of using this gift and honoring this gift, to the tune of millions of dollars, a home. and fancy new cars, lots of awards and trinkets, and a cult following, few of whom really care about the person with the gift.

Inevitably, of course, after a while, the thought of using this gift gets weary and they feel it underneath them. Usually, when they do, they’ll form a drug habit, either for fun or to enhance performance, they’ll get tired of accepting prizes and knick-knacks, and they’ll make many old friends their own, including those who have become concerned and become annoyed. prey on a new group of friends, who manage to care about them even less than the last batch.

This leads them to eventually be told, and therefore trust, that they can seamlessly transfer their gift to other purposes, without knowing that the transition to acting or music would love. Asking for more than just a gift of a large penis. For some reason shocked by this, after being told all they had to do was show up and say their names, the farting star always chose to use more drugs, falling into depression and ended up sitting in the cars of men eager to pay to see something now mostly confused, asking them, “Do you know who I am?”

I admit that these paths are not quite the same. Although the two professions have many similarities, the reality is completely different. In most cases, however, the journeys of a boxer and a porn star tend to end with them coming back, beaten and bruised not by their opponents but by their opponents. with their lives, to the very house they had tried to escape from (right in the arms of Burt Reynolds). “I need help,” they would say. “I’m sorry.”

Indeed, it is the fear of this journey that causes many fighters to fight longer than they need and more to get back to what they were told was over, over. They found, in retirement, neither the peace nor the attention they felt their achievement in the sport would bring them, and they also found that few people cared about them as a civilian, a person whose gift becomes powerless as soon as it is hidden. back inside their jeans, like when they put on gloves and punch someone else.

Two boxers who want to delay retirement, even if one seems obsessed with it, are heavyweights Tyson Fury and Derek Chisora. They met for the third time on December 3 in London and both of them yesterday, on the day they announced this waradmits that the prospect of no more boxing is what instills in them a fear that no opponent has so far been able to replicate.

“I was thinking about retiring,” Fury said. “I really do retired (early this year) and I really mean it. I know people don’t believe me, but I could put my hand on the Bible and pass a lie detector test. When I say I’m retired, I really mean it.

“However, I don’t think I can live a normal life. I think I need medical help to be able to do that. If anyone can help me, I need them, because I won’t be able to leave this game and live a normal life unless I have the brain training to do so. A normal life doesn’t suit me. It doesn’t work. I will keep going and keep fighting.

“Ask me what goals I already have, or where I want to be in five years, and I don’t have any. I will have three matches next year. I guarantee that I will have three matches next year, starting in February. (Oleksandr) Usyk… and if he wants a rematch, he can rematch. (Deontay) Wilder, maybe. Joe Joyce. Daniel Dubois. There’s a lot of British beef to buy. But no (Anthony) Joshua. No more wasting time with idiots. Sorry.”

While it may sound strange to hear Fury mention the myriad of future options as he’s just agreed to fight Chisora, someone he’s already defeated twice, it’s clear, at least today , he wants to hold on and stay in the spotlight for as long as possible. This is also not surprising, as the “King of Gypsy”‘s thirst for attention was evident throughout his career, never more so than when he “retired”, and it’s hard to imagine how he would have survived without it once the curtain was down and the idea of ​​retiring is more than just a practical joke or something to write on Twitter to pass the time. time.

Chisora, too, although arguably less eye-catching, is a man defined purely by his ability to provide entertainment to a predominantly male audience. An unlikely viewership attraction, he’s now used to moving forward, taking punches, and listening to “Ohhhhhh Derek Chisora,” knowing that as long as he can hear the tune he’s got He is performing very well in a fight and, more importantly, remains upright and sane.

“Boxing doesn’t scare me,” he said Thursday. “If you fight and you get knocked out, that’s the best thing ever. If you are disqualified, you don’t have anything to say. But if you lose a points war, you’ll be furious. ‘I could have done this. I was able to do that. ‘

“I don’t do that. I was bred to fight and disqualified. But I don’t see too many people who can take me down. The last one is Dillian Whyte (in 2018). “

With Chisora ​​it is conceivable that his career, like his fights, will be debated and licensed to continue at all times while he remains upright and sane. Sadly, he could turn out to be one of those fighters who need to get out of his misery for him to actually find a way out; a way out, that is, seems less intimidating than the possibility of being knocked down.

“Honestly, it was hard,” he said of retirement. “If you come out of boxing and you don’t have anything else on your side going, it’s tough. You know a lot of boxers who wowed and then found themselves stuck in a gutter. “

“Are you worried about that?” I asked him.

“Yes,” Chisora ​​said, “I do worry about that. If I said I wasn’t worried about it, I would be a liar. When you’re fighting, everyone wants something from you. When you retire, different animals approach you. They bring ideas. Massage your ego. They want your money. But” – he stopped laughing -“I have no money. “