Here and across the boxing world, eyebrows are being raised at the generational fortune Tyson Fury will amass for Saturday night’s fight against Oleksandr Usyk, which will determine who will enter ring legend as the first undisputed world heavyweight champion. of the four-belt era.
Eyes turn green with envy not only in the wrestling fraternity but among millions of people across the planet when it is revealed that Gypsy King is guaranteed £81.5 million for his bid to join Lennox Lewis as the sole holder of heavyweight of all world titles available.
Obscene is one of the derogatory terms used when Fury’s promoters predict that once the PPV counting houses declare their profits, his purse will soar well above £100m.
This very day, 13,000 miles away from the shifting sands of Saudi Arabia, is Joe Louis Day in the Nevada desert.
The Brown Bomber’s memory is being honored on the Las Vegas Strip with glasses raised, introductions to the Louis family, sepia film screenings of his greatest ring performances and eulogies delivered by American boxing luminaries.
Tyson Fury will earn more than £100million after his fight with Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday.
Fury’s huge earnings are in stark contrast to what boxing legends like Joe Louis (pictured) earned during his time at the top of the sport.
The chasm between the fiscal circumstances of Louis and Fury (right, pictured with partner Paris) marks a late end to the era when the most heroic fighters ended up in the slums.
Could it be the most exquisite moment? No. Although perhaps not in the way that many would like to conceive. Louis, who remains alongside Muhammad Ali as one of the two greatest heavyweights, had to turn to charity to end his years in even modest comfort after collapsing almost penniless on a New York City sidewalk.
The bitter and resentful will take this coincidence of dates as a straw with which to beat Fury. An excuse to vent his anger at a man whose extravagant showmanship they detest and who cannot tolerate his extraordinary triumph over the travails of his bipolar condition.
From a more rational point of view, the gigantic chasm between Louis and Fury’s fiscal circumstances marks a definitive, welcome and long-awaited end to an era when even the most heroic of boxers ended up in the slums.
Joseph Louis Barrow was born in 1914 in LaFayette, Alabama. Twelve years later, to escape the growing threats of the Ku Klux Klan, the family of eight children moved from the Deep South to Detroit. Hence that giant fist statue in the center of the Motor City.
The instinct to fight his way out of poverty led Louis (left) to the longest reign as world champion in any weight division.
Meanwhile, Fury will receive a minimum bank guarantee of £81.5m during Saturday’s fight.
His fight against Oleksandr Usyk (pictured) will determine who becomes the first undisputed heavyweight champion of the four-belt era.
Pure instinct to fight his way out of poverty led Louis to the longest reign as world champion in any weight division. Twenty-two years, no less. That included 25 consecutive successful world title defenses, also a record. All as the undisputed holder of the then NYSAC, NBA and Ring magazine belts.
For which he was rewarded by having most of his purses taken away (including those handed out by massive crowds of New Yorkers at Yankee Stadium and a packed Madison Square Garden) by rapacious, shameless and parasitic managers and promoters. And by the ruthless US Internal Revenue Service, which demanded up to 90 percent of your total income, even before all those greedy deductions.
Joe Louis had 66 wins and three losses during his esteemed boxing career.
So much for volunteering to join the army during World War II and using his enormous popularity in the United States to raise considerable funds for the armed struggle against Hitler’s forces.
When Louis first retired he received, out of the blue, a tax demand worth half a million dollars. Even after donations from friends, the shortage still carried the implicit threat of jail time. The IRS and the government pressured him to return on the condition that he forfeit his $100,000 purse for fighting Rocky Marciano.
So there is nothing to be done to face, at 38 years old, this younger, stronger and more brutal puncher who remains the only world heavyweight champion to retire undefeated. Marciano, pressured by his own contacts, agreed but said: “This is the last fight I want.” He did his best to limit the inevitable punishment with an early knockout, but Louis, out of professional pride, lasted eight rounds before being slammed against the ropes.
Rocky cried as he walked to the big man’s dressing room and said, ‘I’m sorry, Joe.’ To which Louis replied: ‘What’s the point of crying? “Everything happens for the better.” If necessary, get the tax collector off your back.
The Gypsy King previously showed off his luxury car collection on his social media accounts.
Fury himself had a difficult start in life and was born prematurely, weighing just 1 pound.
What followed that last fight was sad to behold. A grotesque fight as a fighter. Fewer celebrity appearances. Failed businesses. Benefactors contributed. One with a motorized wheelchair in which he was taken to the ring for big fights at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas to raise donations from high rollers.
Tyson Luke Fury was born in Wythenshawe in 1988 into a traveling family of Irish descent. Although he would never claim to have endured hardships as harrowing as Louis, it was a difficult start in life for a boy who weighed only 1 pound at the time of his premature birth and was not expected to live. Then, when he was a child, he left school at age 11 to go work for the family, along with his father and his three brothers paving the roads.
He learned to fight around campfires. Bare knuckle. After becoming a 6-foot-9 giant, he defeated Wladimir Klitschko to win his first world titles. To which he commented: “Becoming world heavyweight champion is not as tough a fight as proving you’re Irish.”
For all the scandalous antics and turbulence of his career, no one has the right to smear him as he approaches his biggest fight, against Usyk, one of greatest historical significance in boxing over the 25 years since Lewis claimed the then-three – undisputed heavyweight crown belt.
Joe Louis (right) defeated German foe Max Schmelling (left) in 1936, a fight that dealt an early blow against racism in America.
By helping boxing tap into Saudi wealth, Fury is ushering less famous boxers into a rich new era.
It’s not his fault that he earns many times more than Joe Louis. Nor can the Gypsy King be blamed for the Brown Bomber driving a saloon he received as a gift, while Fury’s most notable indulgence in his wealth is a Rolls-Royce or three in his luxury fleet.
Louis cemented American sentiment against the Nazis by winning his comeback fight with his German enemy Max Schmeling, who also struck an early blow against racism in America. The fury broke the glass ceiling above which sharks robbed honest fighters. By helping boxing tap into Saudi wealth, he is ushering less celebrated boxers into a new and enriching era.
And ultimately, the Gypsy King and the Brown Bomber meet the same end. Louis died, aged 66, of a heart attack attributed in part to the rigors of boxing. Fury is aware that his epic trilogy with big-puncher Deontay Wilder has likely taken years off his life. Just like tomorrow night if he and Usyk get into a punishment battle.
Schmeling, as a champion and not a prey of the IRS, helped pay for Louis’ burial in Las Vegas. At least every time Fury goes to meet his creator, hopefully many years from now, he will leave a family more than capable of covering the costs of his departure.
Fury v Usyk will be televised live late this Saturday night on TNT Sports Box Office.
