LDUred
Full Member
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2019
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I don't think Fury's overall performance was that amazing but describing Fury as a fat lump is doing him a massive disservice as a boxer for a number of reasons:
- He deliberately put on weight for Wilder. He got screwed on the scorecards in the first fight, so he wisely decided that his path to victory was by stoppage, especially after he had success against him in the 12th round of the first fight and knew he could hurt him.
- He's been out of the ring for nearly two years. Ring rust was a factor for both fighters in this bout.
In terms of boxing skills, Fury is a very good heavyweight and that remains so. Any HW who puts on 20 pounds will lose something in their defence, foot movement, angles, etc. What is true is that Wilder is a unique kind of opponent in the sense that he doesn't throw an awful lot, but what he does throw could potentially end the fight in a few seconds. You have to try and knock him out by making the calculated risk of putting him on his back foot. But making an overall assessment of Fury as a boxer based on this fight is very myopic, especially after Fury boxed the pants off Wilder in the first fight and put in a more impressive performance technically at 250 pounds.
Personally, I do think this version of Fury would be exposed against a better boxer, but against Wilder is was exactly the right strategy to have adopted.
- He deliberately put on weight for Wilder. He got screwed on the scorecards in the first fight, so he wisely decided that his path to victory was by stoppage, especially after he had success against him in the 12th round of the first fight and knew he could hurt him.
- He's been out of the ring for nearly two years. Ring rust was a factor for both fighters in this bout.
In terms of boxing skills, Fury is a very good heavyweight and that remains so. Any HW who puts on 20 pounds will lose something in their defence, foot movement, angles, etc. What is true is that Wilder is a unique kind of opponent in the sense that he doesn't throw an awful lot, but what he does throw could potentially end the fight in a few seconds. You have to try and knock him out by making the calculated risk of putting him on his back foot. But making an overall assessment of Fury as a boxer based on this fight is very myopic, especially after Fury boxed the pants off Wilder in the first fight and put in a more impressive performance technically at 250 pounds.
Personally, I do think this version of Fury would be exposed against a better boxer, but against Wilder is was exactly the right strategy to have adopted.
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