British heavyweight title challenger Tyson Fury is putting pretty enormous pressure on himself with today's fight against champion Dereck Chisora, telling BoxRec.com that he has to win today or his career in boxing is "pointless":
"If I am any good and I am going to on and win a world title, I should deal with Dereck Chisora quite easily, and if not then obviously I am not as good as I thought I was. If I am any good I will win. If I have a close fight with Dereck Chisora, I am obviously not going to beat Klitschko. If I can't beat Klitschko then I'm pointless being in the game because I don't want to be a journeyman and just hang around at British level."
On the one hand, putting pressure on yourself isn't by itself a bad thing. But Fury is a mere 23 years old and still a work in progress. Chisora is a pretty big step up from the likes of Marcelo Luiz Nascimento and Rich Power, and likely even a big step up from John McDermott or Zack Page, both solid veteran fighters.
To consider a fight like this to be a career make-or-break event, at this stage of one's career, might be going a little too far for his own good, and if he's wound up heading in, it could be a problem.
Chisora vs Fury starts at 3 p.m. EDT in the U.S. on Integrated Sports PPV, and 10 p.m. local (5 p.m. EDT) in the UK on Channel 5.