Tyson Fury achieved one thing in his last defence against Francis Ngannou this weekend — he proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s not the greatest heavyweight of all time.
In fact, the WBC champion is not necessarily the best of his era. Sure, he beat Deontay Wilder, but the American can’t box his way out of a paper bag.
If he can beat Oleksandr Usyk, who holds the other three mainstream versions of the world title, and fellow-Englishman Anthony Joshua too, he can stake his claim of being the best of his era.
Best of all time? Not in his wildest fantasy.
Fury took his unbeaten record of 34 wins and a draw into what should have been a doddle and had to survive a knock-down to eke out a split decision victory over a novice.
Ngannou, an MMA star, made his professional boxing debut and nearly won.
I don’t want to hear any arguments suggesting that Fury had taken the fight too easily or was washed up, or that the challenger is naturally skilled.
Natural talent helps in boxing, but it still needs to be nurtured over years of fighting and training.
There was no difference between this and the Joe Louis bum of the month competition, as many of the Brown Bomber’s defences were termed.
Sure, Two-Ton Tony Halento dropped Louis early on, but he still got put away in the first third of the bout.
Great fighters don’t struggle to beat no-hopers.
It’s the lore of the ring.
Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton and Larry Holmes would have had the Gypsy King for breakfast. So too would have Louis and Jack Dempsey.
Floyd Mayweather was never in trouble against Conor McGregor, another MMA crossover wannabe. I still maintain that Mayweather could have put him away any time he wanted, but carried the Irishman to avoid what would have been an embarrassing blowout.
Modern-day heavyweights have long lost the athleticism of their predecessors.
I would venture to say that the last true athlete was South Africa’s own Corrie Sanders, who smashed Wladimir Klitschko in two rounds.
Sanders had tremendous hand-eye co-ordination. When playing golf he could smash the ball with the same ease that he could caress it around the greens. A rugby player at school, he represented Northern Transvaal at Craven Week. His position? Flyhalf and inside centre.
Think back to the 1970s and it’ll be hard to even find a contender who wouldn’t have had the beating of Fury.
Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton and Larry Holmes would have had the Gypsy King for breakfast. So too would have Louis and Jack Dempsey, who both feasted on giants at their peak.
Fury would have been a fitting bum-of-the-month challenger for Louis, by the way.
Take someone like Ron Lyle. He mixed it with the best of them in the 1970s, but he probably would have been too tough for Fury.
I must admit, Fury takes a decent shot, which he proved the final round of his first fight against Wilder.
But I doubt he would have withstood the heavy-handed, skilled punchers of five decades ago, who were also athletic.
They were a different breed to anyone Fury has fought to date.
The truth is that we’re not likely to see big gifted heavyweights ever again.
The big athletic guys are playing gridiron or basketball or even rugby. The likes of Eben Etzebeth could have made pretty useful boxers, but they’ve found their fortunes elsewhere.
At least fans have Usyk. And if Fury wants to at least get taken more seriously, he needs to fight the top chaps out there.
Until then the circus will continue.
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