By Scott Gilfoid: This is expected to be the hardest fight of Tyson Fury’s career tonight against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (64-3, 53 KOs) on Sky Box Office. Indeed, you can make an argument that this could very well be Fury’s Waterloo with him being trapped, forced into a hole, and then battered into submission until he waves the white towel of surrender at some point in front of 55,000 fans at the ESPRIT Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany.
For some reason, Fury thinks this is going to be a very easy fight for him tonight. He’s saying it’s going to be his easiest fight. I don’t know if he’s just whistling past the graveyard or if he actually believes what he’s saying. With the 27-year-old Fury, it’s almost impossible to know what he’s really thinking.
“I think it’s going to be really easy to be honest,” Fury said to skysports.com. “One of my easiest fights. It’s just another fight for me. They’re all must-wins. This fight is no more important than my last one or the one before that because everyone is just a piece in a jigsaw puzzle and if I hadn’t won those ones before I wouldn’t be in this position.”
Fury has had plenty of easy fights during his career thanks to the soft match-making that’s been done for him by his promoter. But I would hope that Fury would know the difference by now between soft match-making and the tough match he’ll have tonight against Wladimir. This is a whole different kettle of fish for Fury, and I don’t think he’s got the prerequisite experience or the skills to be able to handle this kind of test.
If this is Fury’s easiest fight, then it tells you that he’s been hiding his talent from the boxing world for the past seven years, because he’s not show the kind of talent as of yet that would tell you that a fight against a talent like the 6’6” Wladimir would be an easy fight. When we saw Fury getting dropped by Steve Cunningham and staggered by Nicola Firtha, it would seem that he doesn’t have the greatest of talent in the division. But perhaps that was just one of those things for Fury, and maybe he wasn’t serious with those guys. When Fury was arguably beaten by “Big” John McDermott in their first fight in 2009, maybe it was merely an off night for Fury. I know I had McDermott winning their first fight.
“To me it’s just a boxing fight. Two men, two pairs of gloves. That’s it. We’ll go at it and may the best man win. I have no hard feelings towards Wladimir, and I hope he performs to the best of his ability,” Fury said.
Fury sure if flapping his gums something fierce in trying to make the fight seem like it’s not a big deal for him. Fury can say whatever he wants to, but it’s clearly a very, very big deal for him. If he loses the fight, then he’s going to have a long uphill climb to work his way back to where he is now if he doesn’t flat out retire afterwards.
Fury will have to go through another long list of fodder opponents to get another world title shot. I mean, I don’t expect Fury to face anyone good to get back into position to fight for a world title, because I don’t think he’s good enough to beat any of the top fighters.
I think Fury will stick with the formula that got him this title shot by him fighting weak opposition and then hoping that one of the sanctioning bodies responds by pushing him back up to the No.1 spot so that he can force another world title fight.
I don’t think Fury will get a title shot by WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in him taking the fight with a voluntary defense. I also don’t see WBA “regular” heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev giving Fury a world title shot with a voluntary defense. Heck, why should these guys give Fury a title shot after he loses to Wladimir. I don’t see it happening. That’s why I see it as a long haul for Fury to get himself back to a No.1 spot before he gets another crack at a title.
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