THE 5 GREATEST RING WALKS OF ALL TIME

For boxers, ring walks are either prescient ramps to help assure victory or embarrassing displays of hubris leading to their defeat. Either way, they're hugely entertaining and set the stage for the combat theatre inside the ring.

With regards to my selected top 5 greatest ring walks of all time, my criteria have been to prioritize creativity (or in one instance lack of) followed by emotional and psychological impact.

1. Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder  II (2020) - "Crazy"

It seemed counter-intuitive in the tense and violent atmosphere that pervaded the second Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder fight held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas to have such a gentle, wistful ballad as Patsy Cline's 'Crazy' provide the soundtrack to Tyson Fury's deliberately protracted ring walk but perhaps there was some genius behind the choice.

It is said that Orpheus soothed the savage beast with his song, well I'm convinced Tyson Fury tamed the savage beast in Deontay Wilder that night as he entered the arena on a golden throne carried by six female warriors. Wearing a royal gown that can only be described as part school production costume meets part Bugs Bunny it might have seemed comical had it not been for the stature and conviction with which the heavyweight champ of the world wore it.

The sheer hostility and hatred for Fury from his Alabama-born rival Deontay and his very real-sounding threats of killing Tyson in the ring had made for an extra febrile event even before the first bell. Fury, appearing to diffuse any tension prior to the fight with his unusual song choice, seemed to have pulled off a stroke of magic as if he had the confidence of destiny in both his mind and body. But for fans watching at home, there was a sense he was almost playing it too cool and I had the unsettling feeling he was setting himself up to be a sacrificial lamb. Still, there was a beauty to the fairytale-like entrance that fitted the Gypsy King somehow and of course, the added element of his famously reported mental health issues that made the song seem somehow auto-biographical in a more general sense than the actual lyrics convey.

Thankfully, our worse fears for Wilder's vengeance over Tyson were not realised as Fury dispatched the most powerful, hard-hitting puncher in the heavyweight division and possibly the history of boxing with relative ease inside seven rounds.

Perhaps the Gypsy King wasn't so crazy after all.

2. Bernard 'The Executioner' Hopkins vs Felix Trinidad (2001) - "America The Beautiful"

Bernard Hopkins's ring walk entrance at the end of an apocalyptic September in New York City must rank as the most symbolic heavy of them all. Walking into a post-9/11 world where the city he had been training in had just suffered its most devastating attack felt as if he was both carrying and summoning the spirit of old New York on his way to the squared circle like a spirit daemon.

Hopkins's entourage carried both a fireman's helmet and a policeman's helmet behind him as he walked almost battle weary to fight his opponent as if this was more than a boxing match but a battle to restore the soul of the city which had had its heart ripped out by the twin towers terrorist attack.

The boxing broadcaster and journalist Steve Bunce recounts the high level of emotion at the event in his 2021 article written for Boxing News on the twenty-year anniversary of the event.

"I was in a city where other evil men had done their work a few weeks earlier and forced the fight to be pushed back two weeks. The dust was still heavy from the fallen towers during my unforgettable five days in New York City. Budd (Shulberg) had coughed as we emerged that Sunday morning, the sun bright and the memory of a truly epic fight, 12 rounds at middleweight, the night before at the Garden fresh in our heads.

“It really was one of the finest,” Budd added. I agreed.

The words and sound of Ray Charles singing America the Beautiful as Bernard walked to the ring lingered. What a night. In the seats next to me, hundreds of firemen clutched each other in desperate grips and cried and howled. Many came straight from the ruins of the twin towers, dust and dirt still smeared on their faces, broken only by their tears. They had filed in at 9.45pm, a show of walking defiance and the greatest standing ovation I have ever heard. It was a drama, make no mistake.

Don King dabbed at his eyes, waved his two flags and nodded at the men and women of the police and fire service. The place was wet with sorrow and grief and then Hopkins walked to the ring. And Ray Charles sang."

And it wasn't just Hopkins who played his part in reviving the city's spirits but Felix "Tito" Trinidad who followed Bernard's emotional ring walk with his more festive Puerto Rican jamboree that equally did justice to the city at that difficult time.

Both men did New York proud that night both outside and inside the ring.

3. Tyson Fury vs Otto Wallin (2019) - "El Rey"

In an age where any display of cultural appropriation can have you instantly cancelled it seems Tyson Fury didn't get the memo as he hilariously wore the full Mexican national garb complete with a sombrero as a female mariachi singer delivered a rousing rendition of Vincente Fernandez's iconic anthem 'El Rey' (The King) while he entered the T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas to face Otto Wallin in a WBC belt title defence.

I'm not sure what the Guadalajara-born middle-weight champion Saul Canelo made of this British heavyweight Gypsy fighter walking out to fight on behalf of his beloved Mexico on its celebrated day of independence but the Mexicans in the crowd and in Fury's team appeared to love it.

Perhaps the sign of a true champion is his or her ability to honor and fight on behalf of all people of the world, just like Ali.

Certainly, the fight against Otto Wallin was suitably bloody to match the national holiday celebrating the moment when Father Hidalgo called for Mexico's independence from Spain on September 16th, 1810. Hurt badly in the early rounds, Fury fought most of the fight with a blood-soaked gash above his eye that poured almost constantly throughout his bout with Wallin who was proudly fighting to honour his recently deceased father.

Fury won in the end but it wasn't pretty.

At least not as pretty as his ring walk.

4. Mike Tyson vs Michael Spinks  (1988)

Unlike the more romantic and theatrical Tyson Fury ring walks, the original Tyson (as in Mike) entered his fight with Michael Spinks like a man running out of time. As Spinks waited for Tyson to arrive, the stadium began to fill with the sound of an almost abstract montage of industrial noise including rattling chains and a relentless, buzzing hum like a subdued chainsaw. This was no ordinary ring walk. This was sheer intimidation toward his opposite number who must have felt a tangible sense of dread as he waited in the ring even if he didn't show it on camera.

With his mob-heavy entourage, Mike Tyson headed toward the ring like an overzealous executioner with the determined focus of a man whose sole intent was to totally and utterly obliterate his opponent. I remember the palpable sense of fear emanating through the television screen whenever myself and my brothers would stay up late to watch his fights. I can only imagine what it would have been like to be there live. In some ways, looking back, Mike Tyson's approach to the ring walk was the opposite of all those more creative and performative ring walks, what might be called the anti-creative approach.

Perhaps that's why it struck the fear of God in everyone that night.

This guy simply wasn't fucking around.

5. Prince Naseem vs Vuyani Bungu (2000) - "Magic Carpet"

A sports commentator once said about the boxer Prince Naseem that "if ego was a crime, then Prince Naseem would be on death row."

And if the Prince from Sheffield's ego had so far outgrown the earth beneath his feet at this stage (the pinnacle) of his career then it seemed truly fitting that he would arrive for his title defence at Olympia Stadium, London, March 2000 against South Africa's Vuyani Bungu on a flying carpet.

Supported by moving suspension cables, the crowd was stunned as the Prince flew above their heads toward the ring. One might even wonder if the fighter's greatest fear was of the cables snapping and not the snapping jabs of his opponent that night.

Though such was his supreme belief in his destiny that he survived both his audacious flying entrance to the ring and his title defense bout, easily dispatching his opponent with a KO in round four.

Bonus Ball - Chris Eubank vs Everyone - "Simply The Best"

If Rising Damp's Phillip had taken up boxing then I imagine him to have been similar in personality to Chris Eubanks, pugilism's most erudite and eloquent fighter after Muhammed Ali.

And in light of Tina Turner's recent passing, it seems only fitting to include Eubank's iconic ring walk that became synonymous with her pop anthem 'Simply The Best". Even if Eubank himself hadn't selected the track personally, it seemed to suit his striving for excellence in both body and mind.

Far from menacing, Eubank appeared to be so locked into his own ego that his entrance/ring walk almost seemed more of a pageant for his physical prowess.

Thinking of several tragedies that later befell Eubank in his life, it seems poignant to look back at him in his prime, probably unable to comprehend the possibility of anything being able to penetrate the force field of his mind and his body at the height of his powers.

But all warriors are ultimately defeated by the greatest opponent of them all ...

Time.