British heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury appeared on First Take with Stephen A. Smith Thursday morning to promote his upcoming match against Francis Ngannou at the end of October and unleashed an f-bomb worthy of his Manchester accent and the hype around the match this fall.
Fury called the match “the battle of the baddest mother******* on the planet” during an interview with Smith.
All this concern about Pat McAfee dropping f-bombs, ESPN forgot about Tyson Fury being on First Take pic.twitter.com/Ba8549nhhJ
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 7, 2023
Fury has been fined in the past for swearing at a press conference, and became known early in his boxing career for intolerant language around women, the LGBTQ community, and Jewish folks. Strong language is par for the course when you put Fury (and many fighters) on live television.
The timing of Fury’s ESPN f-bomb is even more ironic considering that it came on debut day for The Pat McAfee Show, which brought scrutiny to ESPN over profanity when its move to the network was announced earlier this summer. ESPN moved to air McAfee’s show on a slight delay in order to mute any cursing. McAfee and recurring guest Aaron Rodgers played around with the censors in the first hour of the show before McAfee earned his first bleep at the tail end of the broadcast.
McAfee and his cast had fun at the expense of producer Dick Good, the man tasked with muting any swearing on the show. We can all agree ESPN may need more Goods on the payroll for First Take in the future, so long as they keep bringing Fury on to promote his fights.
