Dominic Ingle has suggested that Tyson Fury has the upper hand in the mind games with Anthony Joshua, whom he believes to have been hyped up too much by the people surrounding him.
The man who trained Kell Brook was asked about the continued back and forth between Fury and Joshua – the most recent instalment being Fury calling his British rival a ‘coward’ and saying he may never fight him.
Ingle, of the Wincobank Gym in Sheffield, told Boxing King Media that, like many fighters, ‘AJ’s ego has been inflated.
“Tyson’s always going to get into somebody’s head, and I think where Anthony Joshua is at the minute – I don’t think he knows where he is. Because when you’ve had people blowing smoke up your ar*e for the last ten years, or whatever it is, your ego gets inflated that much you haven’t got a sense of reality. That happens with a lot of fighters.”
As for Fury, Ingle believes his experiences have led him to be prepared for the psychological acrobatics that boxing brings.
“The thing with Tyson is, Tyson has got a sense of reality, cause he’s been to the bottom, and he’s been to the top and back to the bottom, and then back to the top. He comes from a travelling background, that’s as real as it gets. You’re fighting on caravan sites. You’re fighting street fights. Your families are fighters. Your brothers and sisters are fighting. Your kids are fighting. That’s the reality of it. That’s a proper tough education in fighting.”
He finished by saying that Fury’s mind games may either pull Joshua into a fight, or force him away.
“Obviously Tyson’s mentally getting the top side of Anthony, and putting the comments out there getting him to question himself. Dismissing his career that [he’s] never fought anybody. That’ll do two things, it’ll either ruin Anthony in the sense that he won’t want to take the fight, or it’ll fuel him up thinking ‘I’m going to prove him wrong.’ Maybe that’s what Tyson wants.”
The most recent negotiations between Fury and ‘AJ’ left many boxing fans believing that the fight may never play out, and contradictory statements from ‘The Gypsy King’ don’t do anything to change that view.