Tyson Fury: The way to beat Wladimir Klitschko is to fight from a southpaw stance

By Boxing News - 03/01/2015 - Comments

fury56By Scott Gilfoid: Despite #1 WBO challenger Tyson Fury (24-0, 18 KOs) never having fought anyone even remotely as talented as IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (63-3, 53 KOs) before in his career, Fury believes that he can beat the 6’6” Ukrainian Klitschko simply by switching his fighting stance to southpaw when the two fighters face each other in a fight that likely will take place next September. Fury is coming off of an 8th round stoppage win over Germany’s Christian Hammer last Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London, UK.

Fury, 6’9”, likes to point out that the late 6’4” South African Corrie Sanders was a southpaw, and he was able to get Wladimir out of there in just two rounds in their fight in March of 2003. Sanders, who possessed very fast hands and incredible punching power with both hands, was able to knock Wladimir down three times in the fight in the process of getting a quick stoppage.

In contrast, Fury is much slower than Sanders, with far less power. Indeed, Fury’s power is more comparable to 43-year-old Tony Thompson than Sanders. Thompson is a slapper just like Fury, and Wladimir had no problems defeating Thompson twice by knockouts in the past. You can make an argument that Thompson, even now, could give Fury all he could handle if a fight between them ever took place.

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“I believe southpaw is the key because there’s not many heavyweights in the world who get southpaw sparring or anything like that,” Fury said via the Manchestereveningnews.co.uk. “The key to beating Klitschko is from a southpaw stance. Corrie Sanders was a southpaw. Tony Thompson gave him problems – both times from a southpaw. Both of those guys were long range fighters, which I am – but they never had my inside game. It makes fights easy. The defense from southpaw is impregnable I believe.”

Like I said, I don’t see Fury being anything like Sanders at all. They are completely different fighters. One guy was a vicious puncher with excellent hand speed in Sanders; whereas Fury is a slapper with marginal hand speed.

Fury isn’t comparing himself to the right fighter in my view. Corrie Sanders, he is not. Tony Thompson, yeah, I can see a comparison between those two.

Fury also reminds me a lot of former Wladimir victim Francesco Pianeta. He’s also similar to Alexander Dimitrenko in terms of speed and power, although I rate Dimitrenko as a better puncher than Fury.

Fury doesn’t have the kind of inside game that would worry Wladimir. Yeah, Fury can throw an occasional upper cut while in close, but he has to realize that if he and Wladimir are going to be at close quarters, it means that Wladimir will have him in a tight clinch. There won’t be any room at all for Fury to land any of his short punches in a clinch with Wladimir unless Fury is going to be throwing rabbit punches. However, I don’t see that flying because the fight will likely be taking place in Germany, and I don’t see a referee letting Fury brain Wladimir with rabbit punches for 12 rounds each time they clinch. I just don’t see that.

If Fury resorts to throwing rabbit punches, I can see him getting points deducted until he’s disqualified. If Fury wants to beat Wladimir, he’s going to need to come up with a better plan than nailing him with rabbit shots each time Wladimir initiates a clinch.



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