THE MISTAKE that people make when judging Tyson Fury based on his comments – whether they are about Oleksandr Usyk or anything else – is that they try to view those comments as those of a rational, clear-headed man. This means that they do not see them as the thoughts of a professional boxer for whom every hour is a chance to lie, but as the thoughts of someone they may know, like or relate to at least a little.

The truth is that Tyson Fury and his ilk are a different breed. First, they are boxers, which means that they give and take punches in order to make their lives, which they threaten with this act, better in some way, at least materially. They are also masters of self-promotion and often self-deception. Indeed, the ability to do both well is the key to gaining an advantage in this game; one that hurts as many men as it helps.

In the case of Fury, probably as good a self-promoter as we have ever seen, now that he has lost his first professional fight, he will never again need both the ability to promote and the ability to deceive himself. These two things remain the cornerstone of his success, but the main difference now is that he is viewed with a narrower eye and he no longer preaches to the converted but to the skeptical.

This became clear last week when Fury, discussing his May fight with Usyk, said the following: “Actually, the Usyk fight was a lot easier than I thought. easier. People said he was tough to hit, but I challenged him with three- and four-punch combos and laughed at him. My problem with this fight was that I was probably having fun. It was probably too uncomplicated. Sometimes it’s too uncomplicated. It was like I was there with a local amateur boxer and I was just enjoying it too much and fooling around. I paid the ultimate price in round nine when I got a 10-8 round and got cut. This is what happens when you have too much fun.”

Based on these comments, some might venture to say that Fury’s fun never ended. However, if they are to be taken literally and there is no reason to believe that Fury is lying (at least to himself), it would be a sin not to reconsider the Usyk fight and how it played out from Fury’s point of view. Eventually, according to him, everything was going according to plan until he found himself having fun and was caught in the ninth inning. Up to this point, he felt like he was on his way to victory, and in fact, whether you agreed with it or not, only he would know if it was true. However, there were certainly rounds leading up to the ninth in which Fury looked not only comfortable but in control; which I think adds credibility to what he’s saying and adds color to the picture he’s trying to paint in retrospect.

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and when Fury looks at his work, he sees something the rest of us don’t – and that’s okay. While the rest of us see something abstract and complex to understand, Fury, being an artist and one who has experienced both the process and the emotions associated with it, is able to interpret and describe it in a way that is unacceptable to us. range. Whether this makes his interpretation credible or even true is a completely different argument, but at least it should be respected and understood. After all, he was there, and Usyk felt things the rest of us were just looking at.

If Fury, as the underdog of the fight, now feels the need to lie to himself to regain his confidence ahead of the rematch later this year, that’s fine too. Moreover, if this is indeed the thinking, Fury will only be doing what countless other boxers have done as a coping mechanism since time immemorial.

“At the height of failure,” wrote the Romanian philosopher Emil Cioran, “at the moment when shame has almost exhausted us, we are suddenly overcome with a frenzy of pride that lasts only long enough to exhaust us, to leave us without energy, to reduce the intensity with our own strength. our shame.

For Fury, a man so used to winning, the pride is clear – always. There is also an illusion, albeit a necessary one for the boxer, and the ego; again, vital for anyone who steps foot in the ring. But if you can bear with it and accept it for what it is, you might find some truth in what Tyson Fury had to say about his first career defeat. This is, of course, only the truth, but isn’t it, ultimately, the only truth that has any real meaning or significance in matters such as this?

HIS plan initially was to excuse himself from the fathers’ race due to injury. Leg, arm, head, whatever would be useful. Indeed, just one look at his face, still bruised from Friday’s fight, and it would be tough for even the most competitive parent not to feel sorry for Macaulay McGowan and let him sit this fight out.

But McGowan’s problem was that his daughter, Florence, who had already won the bean bag race herself, had nothing to do with it. “Come on, daddy,” she said to her hero. “You”.

“I felt pretty bad,” McGowan said moments after crossing the finish line during sports day. “I was tranquil Eddy; he finished fourth out of eight. I was just outside the top three.”

Florence, his seven-year-old daughter, fared much better. She brought home medals – or in this case stickers – and her father, standing by, was ecstatic to watch her and enjoy her transformation from warrior back to commoner.

Now that he can eat what he wants, go where he wants and fulfill a role much more critical than that of a fighter, McGowan currently finds himself in that perfect post-fight place – call it the honeymoon – where the adrenaline of the battle and its aftermath continues to fuel him ahead inevitable expulsion.

“I’m actually high,” he said. “I couldn’t sleep very long. But eventually it wears off, right? Everyone is now screaming and stuff, calling you a warrior and stuff like that, but eventually it all fades away and you’re left with only loss. It takes time for this to stabilize.

“At about this point or in the next few days, I will accept that I lost and it will hurt. But I can do it, man. I’m not too worried about it. I have a momentary lull and that’s it.”

On Friday, McGowan fought 12 rounds against highly touted German Abass Baraou in a fight for the European super welterweight title. That alone is perhaps noteworthy, especially considering Baraou’s reputation and McGowan’s career path so far, but the way he pushed Baraou and won the hearts of fans is what brought McGowan (20-5-2 (5)) home with a feeling of victory even after defeat. On the one hand, yes, he failed to prepare for the gigantic night, but on the other hand, performing live on Channel 5, he was met with a fanfare that some contestants cannot find with their hands raised.

“I try to be successful from within,” he said. “I try to keep it all inside. If I give 100 percent in training and 100 percent when performing at night, I will achieve what I wanted. That’s basically all I can do.

“It’s disappointing that my best results weren’t good enough. But at the same time, it’s not up to me. I can’t conjure victory out of skinny air. I can’t exploit magic to defeat this boy at night. I gave my all in the fight and he was better than me. I have to accept it and I accept it. This is how I will get over the loss.

“The losses hurt, yes they hurt and they always will because at the end of the day I’m a competitor and I really want to win. But sometimes I have to accept that you’re doing your best, but it’s not enough. I know it’s not sexy and it’s not what you read in sports books, but it works for me.

“It still doesn’t mean I accept the level I’m at or the boxer I am today. I’ll go out and work on the things I need to work on. But if I worked on everything I needed to work on before the fight and gave it my all, I couldn’t do anything more. If the fight doesn’t go my way, there’s not much I can do, right?”

To say McGowan’s approach to competition is refreshing would be an understatement. By thinking this way, the 29-year-old shows not only humility, maturity and understanding, but also intelligence and confidence that most would lack, given everything he has just said. after all, intelligence has as much to do with the ability to accept and cope with reality as it does with anything else. Even the self-confidence that so many boxers need and desire is only beneficial when it is a confidence rooted in some reality and an awareness of what is true and what is not. Otherwise, it is not self-confidence, but an illusion.

“I got a surprise shot at the European title and I think everyone thought Baraou was going to knock me out and it was going to be a quick and uncomplicated night for him,” McGowan said. “The scorecards (119-110, 118-110 and 117-111) may indicate that it was an “uncomplicated” night for him, but I know full well that every round was close. Okay, there were one or two rounds that he won clearly, but the rest were close. It was never for him.

– He’s not some nobody either. He was a legitimate, solid, world-class fighter with a European title. I gave my all, but it wasn’t enough.”

The Mancunian added: “I lost, but I’m not defeated. At one point in my career, I never thought I would be in fights like this. But there I was headlining a gigantic European title fight on Channel 5 and giving the fans what they wanted to see. For me it really doesn’t get much bigger than that. That was crazy. I know I said that if I won this fight it would make my career easier, but even just remembering this whole situation – fighting for the European title against the second WBA – is priceless. As a child, I would have done anything for this moment.”

No matter how humble he is, and certainly as he is, McGowan is not the type of man to eat dinner while performing – whether in victory or defeat. Instead, as Monday showed, he is more willing to break away from the ersatz world of attention and adulation and go straight back to what he does best and what he knows. In other words, he wants to get back to reality as quickly as possible; day job; real life.

“It wasn’t that bad,” he said of his first day back at work, where he measured and cut drywall. “I didn’t have to do much. I just took measurements of the drywall, then did some trimming and tidying up.

“Everyone (at work) was dead ecstatic. Everyone was just talking about the fight and praising me a lot. I liked. It’s nice to have that balance, meet other people and get some routine back in your life. Otherwise you’ll just dwell on it.

Before the drywall was cut, McGowan could be seen at Joe Gallagher’s boxing gym. It was there he stayed until 11.30 and there he paraded and bore the only signs of success he took home from Friday’s fight at Bolton.

“When I have a gigantic fight like that, especially a loss, I like to just go into the fight on Monday and get it out,” he said. “Honestly, I just wanted to put on the Grant gloves I had. I wore Grant’s gloves when I fought and I always wanted to wear them. I’ve always dreamed about them, but I would never pay for them. I took them home with me so I could wear them to the gym.”

See. Who needs seat belts?

From London to Las Vegas with Puerto Rico sandwiched in between this Saturday (June 15) was a busy night for boxing.

World titles were at stake, and reputations were at stake in the cruiserweight, lithe heavyweight, super lightweight and lightweight divisions. And although the main winners; Chris Billam-Smith, Jack Massey, David Benavidez, Gervonta Davis and Liam Paro are rightly praised for their victories. What does the future hold for those who fall on the wrong side of the results?

The events of Saturday evening did not end the careers of the beaten ones Richard Riakporhe, Isaac Chamberlain, Oleksandr Gvozdyk, Frank Martin AND Subriel Matias but the quintet will still have the sour taste of defeat 48 hours after the fights.

analyzes the further fate of five men on the losing side and we start with “Night Train” Richard Riakporhe. Composed and confident on the eve of his WBO cruiserweight title fight against Chris Billam-Smith, the evening proved to be something of a disaster for Riakporhe.

The 34-year-old was on Crystal Palace’s home turf at Selhurst Park and entered the ring wearing Palace colors, with fans on his side and bookmakers seeing him as favorite to win the title. The champion had a different opinion and despite his nickname “The Gentleman”, he was dressed in wicked black and looked like a man who could not be defeated from start to finish.

Billam-Smith wanted revenge for the defeat to Riakporhe in 2019, which is the only defeat in his history. Bournemouth and manager Shane McGuigan had a game plan that was too clever for the one-dimensional Riakporhe to do anything. Sent off, strangled and overthought, Riakporhe’s knockout power couldn’t really be executed as Billam-Smith absorbed any painful shots that found the mark.

The defeat was sobering for Riakporhe, who had to go back to the drawing board with coach Angel Fernandez, who pleaded with his fighter between rounds to follow instructions. After signing a contract extension with Boxxer last spring and being one of their first signings, Riakporhe still has a future ahead of him, but who could he fight next? A loss as mandatory challenger will have an impact on his WBO world ranking, but he has ample opportunity ahead of him in a division where it’s not strenuous to find fights.

Billam-Smith’s former opponent Mateusz Masternak could be a valuable exercise for Riakporhe, whose firepower would probably be too much for the Polish veteran. Former world champion Mairis Briedis is an attractive option, but it is not affordable. Cuban artist Yuniel Dorticos it would be half of a fan-friendly fight if he accepted Callum Johnson who, after returning to sport, calmly goes about his business.

If Riakporhe has struggled at this weight and is no longer able to make the 200-pound limit, then a move to bridgeweight is likely before the logical move to heavyweight. Recently, a much-hated division has been welcomed Lawrence area to their ranks, who quickly became the WBC champion with his Polish demolition of Łukasz Różański. Riakporhe and Okolie are not just rivals, but two men who dislike each other and in February 2023, they almost came to blows at the London premiere of Creed III. A professional fight between the two may look good on paper, but could be a tough sell to Boxxer’s broadcast partner, Sky Sports.

Chamberlain (left) in action against Massey (photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

It was another of Selhurst Park’s beaten warriors Isaac Chamberlain who could be another cruiserweight alternative for Riakporhe after losing to Jack Massey in the European and Commonwealth cruiserweight competition.

Chamberlain has been trying to get under Massey’s skin all week, insisting he’s just being himself. Come fight night, Chamberlain tried to pass the Marple fighter, but got right into his hands and was consistently caught from distance and close range. Chamberlain tried to force the action and looked like he was hurting Massey at times in the second half of the fight, but Massey was overall the better and clearly deserved the win.

The defeat is Chamberlain’s third after earlier losses to Lawrence Okolie and Chris Billam-Smith. There is no shame in losing to players of Massey’s caliber, but the Brixton man would be heading towards a world title shot if he won on Saturday night. The natural fight for him would be to fight this fight now Vidal Riley who has been making enough noise lately about fighting Chamberlain that he may now get his chance. Ellis Zorro – who has suffered back-to-back defeats to quality opposition in Jai Opetai and Cheavon Clarke – should also be taken into account.

Beyond the pond Frank Martin his first foray into the elite level ended in a painfully crushing eighth-round knockout defeat to Gervonta “Tank” Davis, who defended his WBA lightweight title.

The skillful and athletic Martin had a promising start in the first three rounds, but to the delight of Davis, he began to jump on the rope too often, who then unloaded his world-class punching power. At 29 years aged and with only one loss to his name, Martin can undoubtedly return to the ring, but the top 135-pound fighters are scattered across various promotional companies, which means Martin may have to continue to play second fiddle. However, there are opportunities closer to home in the Premier Boxing Champion stable, including Chris Colbert and Javier Fortuna or even polarization Roland Romero who lost to “Tank” two years ago.

Before Martin and Davis entered the ring for their main event at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, David Benavidez and Oleksandr Gvozdyk were on hand to provide a decent-looking main support contest in the lithe heavyweight division.

For Benavidez at 175 pounds, it was his first fight after postponing his pursuit of undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez. And although there were various injuries in the ring on Saturday, he coped with the risky threat from his Ukrainian opponent, winning by unanimous decision and taking the interim WBC belt with him.

What now with Gwozdyk (right) after the second defeat? (Photo: Steve Marcus/Getty Images)

Even though Gvozdyk was 37 years aged, he didn’t look like cannon fodder for Benavidez on Saturday night. The former WBC lithe heavyweight champion took a lot of power punches, but absorbed them and found his own success, and by the end he looked like the fresher of the two fighters, but ultimately never looked like the winner.

However, it seems that there is still a lot of fight ahead of “The Nail”, who currently has two defeats, albeit against Benavidez and number one in the lithe heavyweight division, Artur Beterbiev. After completing a three-year and four-month retirement, Gvozdyk won three more fights against Josue Obando, Ricards Bolotniks and Isaac Rodrigues, respectively, before facing Benavidez.

Great Britain Callum Smith – who himself lost to Beterbiev in January – a match with Gvozdyk is an intriguing prospect if both men continue their careers. Gwozdyk will want to continue fighting at the highest level possible, which may bring Smith, Anthony Yarde and Marcus Browne on the table. Gvozdyk’s ultimate goal was to challenge Beterbiev’s winner against Dmitry Bivol, but while he took a step back on Saturday, the former Olympic medalist is able to move forward again.

Matias lost the world title in front of home fans to Liam Paro (Photo: Melina Pizano/Matchroom.)

Meanwhile, in Puerto Rico, reputation Subriel Matias received a shock when undefeated Australian Liam Paro entered the lion’s den and emerged as the IBF super lightweight champion. After a successful first six rounds for Paro, Matias faced him and the home favorite could do little to move the steely Australian who was not to be denied.

Having signed with Matchroom, there is no shortage of options for Matias. It’s likely we’ll see him again on one of Eddie Hearn’s US shows later this year. Stable companion Regis Prograis could be an attractive proposition if the defeated champion wants to return to fight another top-class operator, or maybe we will see the 32-year-old face an opponent like Sergei Lipinets who could be made for him. Ireland Sean McComb – who was incredibly unlucky to lose to Arnold Barboza in April – may have the wrong style for Matias, but the Puerto Rican would certainly appreciate his chances of winning. Either way, his reputation as one of the most risky men in boxing is currently on fire and needs to be extinguished immediately.