The Gypsy King Show hits this notorious neon oasis in the Nevada desert on Saturday night.
If there are to be return engagements, Tyson Fury will have to put on a punch and dance act so unforgettable that Americans will queue down the Strip for tickets. Maybe with one of his renditions from the Vegas crooner’s songbook to round off a knock-out debut in the fight capital of the world.
Fury was in good voice at his media rehearsals and his natural flair as an entertainer has generated increasing interest in this heavyweight fight between an Englishman and a German — Tom Schwarz — in the USA. Not even Bob Arum, the high priest of promoters over here, has gone so far as to claim a sell-out.
Tyson Fury knows he can make a name for himself if he topples Tom Schwarz in Las Vegas
Seats remain available in most parts and it is likely that the turn-out will be enhanced by handing out free tickets to lucky guests in the MGM hotels and the rounding up of some of that group’s employees.
Nothing wrong with that, since the object of this exercise is to continue the selling of Fury to the American market.
But Fury needs to be at his bedazzling best when the lights go down and the TV cameras zoom in on the ring at the Grand Garden Arena.
All the indications are that he will be. He is as honed of body as a 6ft 9in giant possibly could be, at an expected 18½ stone.
Fury was in good voice at his media rehearsals and his natural flair as an entertainer emerged
That is several pounds heavier than for his epic draw with WBC world heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, after a crash diet of Titanic proportions.
‘I needed to put about a stone back on,’ he says, ‘to balance power with speed.’
That is a clear indication of his awareness that US crowds like their boxing skills to be set against a backdrop of fireworks. Fury says he feels under no pressure to make the impact expected of him by Arum and ESPN, who are backing him to the merry tune of a reported £63million.
Certainly, any stress inside those ropes would not compare with the massive mental struggle with which he hauled himself clear of the darkness of chronic depression.
None who witnessed that psychological effort ever expected this colossus to achieve the incredible lightness of being he now exudes.
‘Not even me,’ he says. ‘But here I am, really happy. I have the pleasure of seeing my name up in
