Former heavyweight world champion is warming up for proposed showdown against Anthony Joshua with charity event in Thailand
Tyson Fury has a knack for producing the unexpected and in a novel move on Friday night he will fight in front of 1,500 fans in a charity event in Thailand. No pay and no celebrity VIPs, either.
The former heavyweight world champion is readying himself for a long-awaited blockbuster showdown with Anthony Joshua in the autumn with this 12-round warm-up fight.
Against Joshua, Fury will earn a reported £100m in an era-defining clash with New York, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff all being mulled over as potential venues for the all-British bout.
But for now, Fury will fight in the stifling, tropical furnace of the Max Muay Thai Stadium, which is in the neon hum of the resort of Pattaya.
It will be boxing unadorned in an arena usually reserved for the bone-crunching, elbow-throwing gladiators of Muay Thai, the national sport of Thailand. It is as far removed from the pristine, air-conditioned glitz of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, or the chilly expanse of Wembley Stadium in late autumn as you can get.
There will be no dinner tables and no live broadcast, with only the Netflix documentary team crew which produced At Home With the Furys filming.
The former lineal heavyweight champion of the world will engage in a spectacle that is equal parts competitive tune-up, theatrical exhibition and humanitarian cause.
The fight sold out in three minutes at 10,000 Thai baht (£221) per ticket. It is a venue equivalent in size and reverence to London’s York Hall in Bethnal Green, a spiritual centre for the locals’ beloved sport.
It is anticipated that it will raise about 8.1m baht (£179,403) for the Father Ray Foundation, a local institution that has provided refuge, education and hope to orphaned, disabled and street-dwelling children across Thailand for more than four decades.
“I’ve spent time out here in Pattaya, and I’ve seen the kids on the street,” Fury said. “For me, $250,000 goes into a bank account and disappears. Out here, for these children, it might as well be $25m.”
In recognition of his gesture, the World Boxing Council has bestowed upon him its inaugural WBC Humanitarian title, a shiny piece of hardware rewarding the boxer’s empathy while allowing the sanctioning body, some might say opportunistically, to feature in the contest.
Living on a yacht in the harbour at Jomtien, this is a country Fury has quietly fallen in love with, and having interviewed the “Gypsy King” exclusively there ahead of his comeback, the enigmatic character is extremely happy in the “Land of Smiles”.
Having used the Chonburi province as his training base ahead of his points victory against Arslanbek Makhmudov earlier this year, the 37-year-old found solace in Thailand’s unique blend of spartan fight culture and profound, tranquil warmth.
Friday’s contest will be against Mariusz Wach, with whom Fury appeared at a news conference on Wednesday in Pattaya. At 46, the Polish “Viking” is a human brick wall, famous for taking Wladimir Klitschko the distance in 2012. At 6ft 7in and 19st 5lb, Wach will provide the size and physical presence to test Fury.
Fury will want to find his rhythm, utilising his feinting, flicking jab and twitching shoulders to shift weight constantly on the canvas to nullify Wach’s straight right hand and tight guard. He will want to showcase the fluid, southpaw to orthodox switches that remain his signature calling card, winning the clinch but ensuring the bout is devoid of head clashes and cuts. A mid-rounds stoppage would be the perfect outcome.
But make no mistake: as heartwarming as the charity initiative in Pattaya may be, there is a bigger picture here with the shadow of Joshua looming large over the entire event.
Joshua fights in Saudi Arabia in his own warm-up fight 24 hours later against Kristian Prenga, a lower-level knockout artist with 20 victims on his KO record.
Fury’s Thai exercise is a calculated piece of fight preparation. By opting for a high-intensity, live-work environment in front of 1,500 screaming fans rather than closed-door sparring, he will be sharpening his reflexes under actual lights.
The belated, impending domestic showdown with Joshua is arguably the biggest and most financially lucrative British heavyweight bout in history, which will require Fury to be physically primed and mentally light. And in Pattaya, he is lean, rejuvenated and remarkably happy.
Training in the Thai heat and fighting in a small-hall arena is not standard preparation for a multimillion-pound mega-fight, but standard rules have never applied to Fury. When the final cheers echo around the Max Muay Thai Stadium and the local children from the Father Ray Foundation are brought into the ring to share the stage with the heavyweight icon, the scene will be unique.
In an era when elite boxing is all too often swallowed by corporate boardroom posturing and astronomical site fees, Fury constructed an event that felt genuinely human. As Spencer Brown, Fury’s manager and the head of Goldstar Promotions who is putting on the fight, told Telegraph Sport: “Tyson simply wants to finish his camp here and raise money for charity. Nothing else.”
If all goes to plan, Fury will have come to Pattaya, given back to a community that embraced him during his darkest moments of training, raised a quarter of a million dollars for vulnerable children and ticked off a crucial tune-up step on his quest to settle the score with Joshua once and for all.