Wladimir Klitschko vs Tyson Fury: Ukrainian champion ready to silence his ranting rival

As if to counter one of Tyson Fury’s kinder observations about him, that he is a dispassionate robot with no sense of humour, Wladimir Klitschko tells us an old Ukrainian joke. It is a slightly risqué tale involving an old rooster and a young cock, and the multi-belted world heavyweight champion delivers the punchline with rare relish, the moral being how callow youth gets a comeuppance against a wily, venerable rival.

Fury, 27, has been adamant that age will work against the 39-year-old Klitschko, who defends his WBA Super, WBO and IBF world heavyweight titles when they meet in Dusseldorf’s Esprit Arena before a sell-out 55,000 crowd on Saturday.

“The key factor here for me is your age,” Fury told Wladimir. “My ability is going to make your age catch up with you. No matter how hard you train, how good you feel, you can’t compete with young athletes.”

Klitschko sighs when I repeat the quote to him last week, and says: “Ahh. Experience is something that can’t be bought in a shop.”

His measured riposte contrasts steeply with the near-hysterical nonsense that has spewed from the Mancunian’s mouth in the build-up to a fight that has been delayed by a training injury to Klitschko.

Dr Steelhammer believes Fury is seriously disturbed... or at least is pretending to be. That is not a medical diagnosis, as Klitschko’s doctorate is in philosophy, not medicine, though he did briefly attend medical school. “He definitely seems to have some screws loose in his mind,” Klitschko says from his mountain- retreat training camp in the Austrian Tyrol. “I’ll need to tighten them.”

Fury’s recently expressed extreme opinions on homosexuality, abortion, paedophilia and devil-worshipping have clearly shocked Klitschko and even caused a further tremor at the British Boxing Board of Control, who have thrice censured Fury, with fines of £32,000, for foul language and homophobic tweets.

“He has issues, for sure,” says Klitschko. “His comments make me sick. They were disgusting and had nothing to do with the promotion. They just showed the true insides of Tyson Fury. He has the brain the size of a walnut. He is one unhappy man.”

When the unbeaten Fury dressed up as Batman he publicly proclaimed himself “a psychopath”. Never mind Batman, he is more Jekyll and Hyde. There are times when he has a certain engaging eloquence, but more frequently of late he has shown a disturbingly dark side to his persona.

His latest ranting goes well beyond the often dubious realms of pre-fight hype. He even admits his bizarre views might leave him open to assassination. It is par for the course, as in an earlier interview he talked of contemplating suicide.

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This is not Fury playing it for laughs, selling tickets or simply being the ultimate wind-up merchant. He seems to delight in purposely overstepping boxing’s thinly disguised line between the provocative and the tasteless. Yet, as I say, he can be immensely charming, humorous, even quite likeable.

But one wonders whether big-fight nerves are getting to him. Last week he was smashing a watermelon open with his head and spewing the contents towards the camera.

Klitschko must think he is bedevilled by barmy British heavyweights. First there was David Haye’s T-shirt displaying the decapitated heads of Wladimir and his brother Vitali, then Dereck Chisora spewing water into his face after slapping that of Vitali, and now Fury’s wheeze as a caped crusader and religious zealot.

You have to admire Wlad’s phlegm. He’s seen it all and dealt with it all before, from 1996, when he won the Olympic super-heavyweight gold, through a 67-fight career that had some literal ups and down early on but sees him as second only to Joe Louis as the longest-reigning heavyweight champion.

So can Fury become the first Traveller to win a world heavyweight title, collecting £2m in the process? In the ring anything can happen when giants collide, but I think it highly improbable. No one has looked like beating Klitschko in the past 11 years, in which he has made 19 successive successful title defences.

The switch-hitting Fury can box skilfully for such a big man, but I doubt he is quite adroit enough to outpoint the cultured Ukrainian, and he doesn’t punch hard enough for his size and weight to knock him out, as he would need to do to win in Germany. He has also been put on the floor by a light-heavyweight.

Wlad the Impaler, whose big brother relinquished his version of the title to battle in the even more dangerous political ring as the mayor of Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, may lack charisma but he has the class and the clout. He believes this is a contest decided as much in the mind as the ring. “OK, so I’m boring,” says Klitschko. “I don’t drop the F-word. I don’t do theatre, I don’t dress up as Batman. But for a long time now I have been observing opponents getting under their own skin.

“It was the case with David Haye but I’m a very good therapist and I made him a better person – he carries himself a lot better since I beat him.

“It is bad if you let your emotions take over in the ring. Fury needs to control himself the way I did that day with Chisora. In view of his recent behaviour, I doubt he can.

“Chaos means emotions and emotions are a downside in boxing. Tyson Fury is digging himself deeper and deeper. That’s good for me.”

Fury remains full of sound. “Everything he [Klitschko] does is manufactured. I do it off the cuff,” he said last month. “No one sticks a key in my back and turns it. I’m my own man. The world will have the most colourful, charismatic heavyweight since Muhammad Ali.

“I’m the one the world’s been waiting for. I’m the man to fill Ali’s boots. The world needs me to change the landscape of the division away from these robots. We’re heading for a new year, a new era and a new heavyweight champion.”

As they say in the Lotto TV advert, please don’t let it be him.

Klitschko v Fury is live on Sky Sports Box Office on Saturday: skysports.com/klitschkofury

27 Age 39

6ft 9in Height 6ft 6in

85in Reach 81in

Switch-hitter Stance Orthodox

18st Weight 17st

Manchester, England Born Zhangiztobe, Kazakhstan

British Nationality Ukrainian

Morecambe Resident Hamburg

24 Wins 64

18 Knockouts 53

0 Defeats 3