Ring King: Tyson Fury scoops prestigious award again

Tyson Fury has been named Ring Magazine’s Fighter of the Year for a second time, ending his year in style.

Fury became the first British fighter to win the award twice, as he won the award alongside newly-unified lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez.

‘The Gypsy King’ took the prestigious prize from the bible of boxing for the first time back in 2015. That came after his epic defeat of long-time heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in Germany.

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Wilder demolition the key for Fury

His 2020 prize came courtesy of that brutal demolition of Deontay Wilder in their rematch in Las Vegas February 2020. Fury produced a performance for the ages to completely dominate ‘The Bronze Bomber’ en route to a one-sided seventh-round stoppage win. It was the first defeat of Wilder’s professional career.

Lopez meanwhile closed out his year in sensational style by defeating P4P superstar Vasyl Lomachenko in their big unification match in Vegas in October.

Some critics will scoff at the 32-year-old Fury being awarded the Ring prize despite having fought only once, and that back in February. Not many elite fighters managed to be out more than once though – we are in the middle of a pandemic after all. There were also those complaints from Wilder post-fight about Fury’s tactics.

Ring chief defends Fury choice

But Ring Associate Editor Tom Gray was perfectly happy with the choice of Fury, and he backed up the rationale in a strongly-worded editorial

“Now I get that Tyson Fury is polarizing. I’ve said before, you either like him or you don’t,” said Gray.

“However, regardless of preferences, let’s get it right, he shook up the world with that performance. Wilder didn’t know if it was Cyber Monday or Pancake Tuesday that night, but now that we’re 10 months down the line, people want to re-write history and pretend that TKO 7 wasn’t a big deal?

“Give me a break, guys! Fury took the killing machine that “only had to be perfect for one second” and turned him into a dog balloon. Keep it real!”