By Thomas Cowan: Tyson Fury has come in for a lot of criticism recently for the class of the opponents he’s been fighting. This is very fair criticism. The opponents that Fury has faced aren’t good enough for him to be talking about fighting one of the Klitschko brothers. It has been suggested that Fury should test himself by facing American prospect Deontay Wilder who called Fury out last year. This idea is hypocrisy in it’s most hilarious state.
If Fury wanted to improve the quality of fighters he’s been facing, why would he want to fight a guy who is wasting his career knocking out guys ranked outside the top 200. The only fighter Wilder has faced who’s managed to work their way to a world title shot is Jamaican Owen Beck. Beck fought Russian giant Nikolay Valuev in 2006 and was brutally knocked out in the 3rd round. Beck’s career in freefall since then and was coming off 7 straight losses when he faced Wilder, including a loss to debutant Sergey Rozhnov. I’m not even going to bother talking about Wilder’s other opponents because it would just be a waste of everyone’s time.
Fury has hardly been in with great opponents but he has beaten both Dereck Chisora and Kevin Johnson, both guys who have gone 12 rounds with Vitali Klitschko, losing unanimous decisions in 2012 and 2009 respectively. Johnson also destroyed Harold Sconiers inside one round. Sconiers is an aging American who has more losses than wins but still managed to drop Deontay Wilder when they fought in 2010. Wilder recovered and stopped Sconiers in the 4th round.
These facts show the gulf in class between Wilder and #3 WBC contender Fury and anyone who believes that Fury should fight Wilder, or that Golden Boy would allow the American to step in the ring with someone ranked over 100 places above anyone opponent he’s ever faced is hopelessly delusional. Wilder should face an opponent in the top 100 and slowly work his way up from there. If he does this he could be in for a title shot in late 2014 or 2015 but he needs to massively improve his overall game because when he comes up against guys who can defend themselves a big right hand is not going to be enough to win the fight.
I don’t even think Wilder’s right hand is that powerful because if it was he’d have knocked out Matt Greer inside a round. It’s ridiculous how overrated Wilder’s power is, one Deontay-loving writer on this site even suggested he was more powerful than George Foreman. Unless he meant the 64 year-old, 2013 version of Big George this is a ludicrous exaggeration. Foreman knocked out guys like Joe Frazier (twice), Wilder’s knocking out guys like Matt Greer. Smokin’ Joe makes my list of top 10 heavyweights of all time, I doubt Greer would make the top 5000.
The Bronze Bomber does have potential but Wilder must improve his fighting style and more importantly, his quality of opponent before he starts calling out guys like Fury.
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