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It is never clear which version of Tyson Fury is going to sit down when he sweeps into the room, flanked by his brothers and the rest of his entourage, to conduct the latest in his myriad press obligations. “Are we doing a roundtable now,” he says, pointing at the empty chair set out for him in front of a long trestle table. “Or should I say rectangle one.”
This has been an almighty promotion already. The Saudi money men behind Fury’s crossover fight with Francis Ngannou have wrapped London buses, splashed across billboards and even plonked a giant ring on the banks of the River Thames. And that was just England.
Fury, the heavyweight division’s most capable showman, has played his part at every turn this week but behind closed doors, away from the lights and the cameras and with only a dictaphone in front of him, Fury can often quieten down. But not this time.
In the vast dressing room in which he will prepare on Saturday night, part of a giant construction in the sandlands of northern Riyadh, the world heavyweight champion is a whirl of energy. The money must be helping. He is set to bank a fortune to beat up Ngannou and, provided he comes through unscathed, he will then face Oleksandr Usyk in the richest heavyweight fight in boxing history.
The plan is for it to take place on December 23 but Bob Arum has declared the two would happily clash on Christmas Day so vast are their purses. Fury, a boxing historian, has been happy to denigrate Usyk, a former unified cruiserweight champion and now world No.2 at heavyweight, ahead of this prospective clash.
The consensus, however, is that privately Fury rates Usyk and his ability. But the 35-year-old Morecambe resident is adamant his opinion of the Ukrainian wizard is the same whether the doors are open or closed.
After 20 minutes of conversation, which touched on his recent sale of 100 properties in the north-west of England, meandered through the state of the astro turf in his garden and described his latest training camp in detail, it is put to Fury that Usyk is actually quite good.
“Is he?” Fury responds. “Is he any better than the rest of these people really? I’m not sure if he is. He had a 50-50 fight with [Dereck] Dell Boy [Chisora]! Did you not see that? Did you see my fights with Chisora? All three of them.
“I know styles make fights and you can look at the way George Foreman despatched Joe Frazier and then Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier had those great fights. But if you look at what those guys did – even Daniel Dubois had a lot of success against Usyk.
“Without being rude to those guys, they are little more than heavy bags on legs – walking forwards. Even AJ, he had a lot of opportunity and he didn’t do anything. He just walked forward with his hands up round his head, terrified of what was coming back and he didn’t use his advantages.
“Do you really think after all these years of knowing me that I’m going to go in there and be happy to lose on points with my guard up like that saying ‘oh my god, what do I do?’ Please. I was right when I predicted what would happen against Wladimir Klitschko too. Bang on. I know boxing like Mr Kipling knows cakes.”
Although Fury, 33-0-1 (24), is a clear favourite in the fight, there are many picking Usyk to pull off the upset and stake a claim as one of the very best fighters in any weight class of all time. But for Fury, the equation is simple: the man from the Ukraine is just too small.
“Listen, he could hit me with his best shots, up through the gloves, on the face, whatever, and I have the body mass to stand up to his arsenal,” Fury explains. “But he doesn’t have the body size to stand up to what I can dish out.
“His body frame won’t take my punishment but I can take his. He’s a 220lb man and I’m a 270lb guy – he will not stand up to what I will hit on him but I will always stand up to what he’s got to offer.
“If I wasn’t me and I was somebody else and I had to fight a 6ft 9in switch-hitter, 20 stone who can punch, counterpunch, get on the back foot, move, dance. How do you beat this man? Obviously everyone has tried to knock him out.
“I don’t really have trouble with southpaws either because I’m a big man and I get stuck right into them, double-handed. He won’t be able to move away from me in a 20ft ring. He might run away but I’ll chase him down, I’ve got fast feet that the other blokes don’t have. I will hit him and hit him and hit him and I’ll stop him. I guarantee it.
“I think there’s a weakness with all heavyweights to the chin – forget the body, I want to knock him spark out to the face. I just think any of these smaller heavyweights are susceptible to giants.”
It is unusual to hear Fury talk so openly about a future opponent when he has an outstanding assignment to take care of but that points towards how the 6ft 9in heavyweight really feels about Saturday night.
“I don’t want to say too much bad about him because it only lessens my win,” he says of Usyk, before switching his thoughts back to Ngannou. “But if I told you what I really think of these guys, who would buy the pay-per-view? I’ll tell you what Francis Ngannou is – a big, fat sausage. He couldn’t beat me if he had a machete and a 9mm in his hands. How is he going to beat me? Please.
“It’s alright me saying this is a 50:50 fight. Is it bollocks a 50:50 fight. I’m going to take him to school and then I’ll let him know what a right hand feels like.
“I intend on punishing him for a while, enjoying it and putting on a show, then bang – finishing him. He might be tough as a brick, he’s never been stopped but he’s never been hit by a proper puncher before. MMA punching and boxing punching are two different things.
“He’s being paid $10m for this fight – if he fought 20 times in the UFC he wouldn’t make that so does it matter if he wins or loses really? He’s made it. But it matters to me because I don’t want to lose.
“The money side of it to me is beautiful. To do a tough job and get paid for it is fantastic but if you asked me would you get double the amount of money for this fight but you lose, I’d say no. I’d rather have the victory than the winnings.”
Having said that, Fury also revealed that he is expecting to now fight exclusively in Saudi, where he stands to accrue generational wealth the like of which no boxer not called Mayweather has ever seen before.
“Will Saudi be my permanent home for the rest of my career? I think so,” he says. “I’m really well looked after out here, I get everything I need. All the big fights are coming here and this is where the big dough is. I did my two big fights in the UK last year, Chisora and Whyte, Tottenham and Wembley. Now I’m over here for the twilight of my career.”
With that he is off. Out onto a huge stage in the middle of the desert, wearing a waistcoat and no shirt. The circus is here and Fury is the perfect ringleader.