By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn is really counting on unbeaten British heavyweight Tyson Fury (24-0, 18 KOs) beating IBF/IBO/WBAWBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (64-3, 53 KOs) in their fight later this year.
Hearn would like to match his fighter undefeated No.2 WBC Anthony Joshua (13-0, 13 KOs) up with Fury, because he feels it’s a fight that would be big enough to stage at Wembley Stadium in front of 80,000 fans in London, UK.
There’s a purse bid this Monday for the Klitschko-Fury fight, and Hearn says he’ll be attending to make his own bid. However, he’s going to have heavy competition in the form of other promoters all looking to win the bid so that they can stage the fight wherever they want.
“I hope Fury wins. That would open the door for huge fights in the division with Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder so I’d love to see him do it,” Hearn said to Skysports.com. “On paper, I don’t think he does but I rate him and I certainly think he has a shot in the fight.”
I really don’t think Fury is going to beat Wladimir. I mean, it’s a nice pipe dream that Hearn has going in wanting Fury to win, but I don’t see him being able to beat a guy with as much punching power, experience and athleticism as Wladimir has going for him in this fight.
As soon as Fury starts trying to throw his combinations, he’s going to open himself up to Wladimir’s big left hooks and right hands, and it’ll result in Fury getting hit hard and likely dropped for the 10 count.
Fury’s management has made a big mistake in matching him against so many weak opponents during his career. He’s not fought the taller guys that he needed to in order to get ready for Wladimir, and that’ s going to hurt Fury when he gets inside the ring with the Ukrainian heavyweight.
Instead of Hearn hoping that Fury wins, he should be putting his attention on hoping that Joshua beats undefeated Dillian Whyte later this year. That’s a fight that Hearn is interested in making, possibly in November or December. Joshua sees Whyte as a stepping stone to help him get ready for bigger fights in the future, but Joshua already lost to the guy before in the amateur ranks and was getting knocked down left and right by him.
Joshua’s weight has gone up since then by approximately 30 pounds from 220 to 250, but my guess is Joshua’s ability to handle Whyte’s punching power will remain unchanged.
Adding a bunch of muscle to Joshua’s frame has made him slow, less flexible and slower on his feet than the Joshua that fought Whyte six years ago in 2009. But at the same time, Joshua’s chin likely won’t be any better than it was the first time around, I hate to say. You can put on as much weight as you want, but you’re head isn’t likely going to get any better at handling huge blows like the ones Whyte will be nailing Joshua with in their rematch.
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