Fury now targeting Arreola-Stiverne winner instead of Pulev

By Boxing News - 04/16/2013 - Comments

fury5445By Scott Gilfoid: Irish heavyweight Tyson Fury (20-0, 14 KO’s) says he’s been told by the WBC president Jose Sulaiman that he has first dibs on the winner of the April 27th fight between Chris Arreola vs. Bermane Stiverne to fight to become the mandatory challenger for the WBC heavyweight title held by 41-year-old Vitali Klitschko.

What’s new about this is that Fury had been talking about fighting unbeaten #1 IBF contender Kubrat Pulev to try and become the mandatory challenger for IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko.

The option of having to face Pulev to get to Wladimir is arguably the much tougher option for a light hitter like Fury because Pulev is a big heavyweight at 6’4 1/2” and he’s got a better jab and much more amateur experience.

That would be a toss-up fight that could go either way, and I’m not surprised that Fury is being steered in another direction because just getting past Pulev would be a real problem for him. And if Fury were to even beat Pulev, the chances are that Fury would be taken apart by the faster, stronger 6’6” Wladimir. That’s a really bad match-up for Fury because he doesn’t have the tools to compete with the huge Ukrainian.

I think Fury will have major problems trying to beat the winner of the Arreola-Stiverne fight. Both of those guys can really punch and Fury hasn’t faced anyone even remotely as strong as either of them. He’s easy to hit and if you let someone like Arreola or Stiverne hit you then you’re not going to last very long.

None of this will matter if Fury can’t get past his opponent Steve Cunningham this Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, in New York. This is a fight that could really go either way because Cunningham is a much better fighter defensively and he’s a lot faster.

We could see Cunningham do exactly what Guillermo Rigondeaux did against the bigger and stronger Nonito Donaire last Saturday night in New York. Cunningham will give Fury fits with his speed, jab and counter punching ability in this fight.



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