British heavyweight Tyson Fury landed some powerful verbal blows on his rival Wladimir Klitschko ahead of their world title fight in October, but they the giant Ukrainian appeared untroubled by Fury's insults at their first press conference.
Fury, who is undefeated in 24 fights, told Klitschko he was "boring" and had "as much charisma as my underpants".
The outspoken Mancunian introduced himself at the press conference in Dusseldorf as "der sexymeister from Great Britain". He then told Klitschko: "It's a personal mission for me to rid boxing of a boring person like you. I've just been falling asleep listening to your stupid speech there.
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"[The fight is] personal business between you and me. I'm not interested in all the titles and all those belts you've got on there – I'm interested in breaking your face in. That's what I'm interested in.
"You're boring and I want to get you out of the heavyweight division... Europe wants to see you get beaten and all of Europe and the rest of the world will see you get beaten... You are nothing and you are getting knocked out."
Klitschko, who has not lost for 11 years, shrugged off Fury's onslaught. "Is this it?" said the 39-year-old. "He didn't throw the table? He didn't throw a microphone somewhere? His shoe? I don't know. There has been flying shoes and so much entertainment before – I'm sure it's going to show up."
The Ukrainian also described Fury as a "cool dude", although the 26-year-old Briton has an even higher opinion of himself than that. "A fighter like me only comes around every 1,000 years," he claimed.
But Fury's bombast was underwhelming according to The Guardian, which describes him as relatively "contemplative".
But boxing bible The Ring seem pleased enough. There is no guarantee that the fight will "live up to the hype but the press conferences were always going to deliver, thanks to the outspoken British challenger," it says. "Fury pulled out all the stops in Dusseldorf, Germany, much to the delight of the assembled media."
It adds that Fury is noticeably taller than his opponent and says that away from the verbal sparring Klitschko "seems to be taking this one very seriously".
