By Scott Gilfoid: British heavyweight contender Tyson Fury (23-0, 17 KOs) says he still prefers to face IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko later this year rather than face WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (33-0, 32 KOs) in a fight that would likely come a lot quicker than the Klitschko fight.
Wilder would likely face the 6’9” Fury next if he could get the British fighter to agree to the fight, but since he’s interested in facing Wladimir instead, Wilder has to look in another direction for his next fight.
Let’s be honest here; Fury will have a tough time trying to survive for long against either Wladimir or Deontay. They both hit too hard and have too much hand speed for Fury to compete against them.
Fury’s section between Wilder and Klitschko really comes down to which of them he wants to face in order to get the bigger payday. In that case, Fury probably should be looking in the direction of the Wilder fight, because I think he’d give Fury a better chance at getting a bigger payday.
I know Fury is the mandatory challenger for a fight against Wladimir, which gives him a nice purse split of the money. However, with a Wilder-Fury fight, it’s a match-up that is big enough to stage at Wembley Stadium in London, and I could see the two of them filling up the stadium.
Further, the fight will do well on pay-per-view due to Wilder’s superb marketing skills. He would make sure that he made himself accessible to the media by giving countless interviews rather than limiting his interviews to a few selective sites picked out for him by his manager.
“Klitschko is No1 in the division, and he has the most belts,” Fury said to IFL TV when asked who he would prefer to fight between Klitschko and Wilder.
I can perfectly understand Fury’s reluctance to get inside the ring with the 6’7” Wilder. Losing to him would be a huge blow to Fury’s career, because Wilder is young, unproven and still not recognized as the best heavyweight in the division.
If Fury loses to Wilder, then Fury would need to accept that he’ll never be seen as the No.1 guy in the heavyweight division as long as Wilder is around. But if Fury gets whipped by Wladimir, Fury can say that he lost to the best guy in the division.
Fury would then tell himself that he can wait out Wladimir until he retires and then slide in and try and take over his position as the No.1 guy at heavyweight. Fury would have a readymade excuse if he were to lose to Wladimir that wouldn’t be there if he lost to Wilder.
If he lost to Wladimir, Fury could say that he lost to the best heavyweight in the division. If he loses to Wilder, then Fury will need to say that he’s simply not good enough to beat the guy.
Fury has a fight this month against #3 WBO Christian Hammer (17-3, 10 KOs) on February 28th at the O2 Arena in London, UK. It’s a decent fight, but hardly more than a rerun of Fury’s fight against Joey Abell. Hammer is ranked high, but in terms of how he’s looked in the ring against mediocre opposition, he’s looked terrible.
He struggled like mad against journeyman Kevin Johnson in winning a controversial decision, he lost to Mariusz Wach by a 6th round stoppage in 2010, and he was beaten by Taras Bidenko in the same year.
Hammer’s wins have all come against weak opposition. In reality, I don’t see Hammer as deserving the top five ranking that the World Boxing Organization has bestowed on him. He looks clearly like a 2nd tier fighter in my view, and I’m being kind here.
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