By Scott Gilfoid: In a surprise move, Ring Magazine has made IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) as their 2015 Fighter of the Year award for his wins over Wladimir Klitschko and Christian Hammer.
Fury, 27, is sky high after winning the award, as I guess he didn’t figure he would be crowned with such an honor as this after the win.
Honestly, it’s difficult for me to agree with Fury being given 2015 Fighter of the Year award because I happened to see his fight against Wladimir, and it was painful to watch. It wasn’t just Wladimir looking as old as the hills and appearing totally shot.
It was also Fury fighting TERRIBLY, and looking almost as old as Wladimir. I thought it was a poor fight that I couldn’t even rate Fury after the fight. I mean, I don’t go for the ‘fighter of the year’ type jazz, but if I did have someone to pick out for 2015, it sure as heck wouldn’t be Fury.
Sorry, I don’t rate Fury for that gawd awful performance against Wladimir. Yeah, Fury won the fight, but he was someone that was in the right place at the right time in getting the fight with the 39-year-old Wladimir now rather than having fought him four or five years ago, when Wladimir was still fighting at a very high level.
“How many British fighters have traveled to their opponent’s home ground and came away as Fighter of the Year?” Fury said to Ringtv.com. “How many British fighters have gone to Germany and beat a man of Klitschko’s caliber, when he hadn’t lost in 11 years? I’m the Fighter of the Year for The Bible of Boxing.”
It doesn’t matter that Fury traveled to Germany to beat Wladimir in his own home away from home country. The fact of the matter if Wladimir has been slipping for some time as a fighter, and he finally appears to have lost it completely. He didn’t age well at all like his older brother Vitali Klitschko, who was still fighting at a very high level at age 42.
The two of them are brothers, but Vitali is SO much better than Wladimir in my view. If this had been Vitali at 39 instead of Wladimir, I think Fury would have been picking up his teeth all around the ring last November in their fight in Dusseldorf, Germany.
I’m starting my own Fighter of the Year and I’m sure not picking Fury. He’s on list, yeah, but I have buried down around No. 30. He didn’t beat anyone good in 2015, so I couldn’t include Fury far up there. My ‘Fighter of the Year’ for 2015 was Gennady Golovkin followed by Roman Gonzalez, Sergey Kovalev, and then Deontay Wilder.
I think Golovkin fought the best in 2015, so he should get the award. I don’t rate Fury because like I said, he didn’t beat a good fighter. He best a shot fighter in Wladimir, and some unknown heavyweight named Christian Hammer, who had an inflated ranking in my view. I couldn’t believe how awful Hammer looked. I had seen him fight before that in winning a controversial decision over journeyman Kevin Johnson in 2013.
I had Johnson winning that fight. But the fact that Hammer couldn’t even conclusively best an old journeyman like Johnson told you pretty much all you needed to know about Hammer. I don’t see how Ring Magazine could give Fury ‘Fighter of the Year’ for beating Hammer. Heck, if that’s all it takes is a win over Hammer and a victory over an over the hill Wladimir to win ‘Fighter of the Year,’ then the award comes too cheap in my view.
“I’m sky high. The heavyweight champion of the world got my name,” former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson said to skysports.com about Tyson Fury having the first name as him. “He [Fury] is the best heavyweight champion of the world since myself. He is the man; I don’t care what anybody says.”
Oh boy, Fury is definitely not the best heavyweight champion since himself. I’m not sure if Tyson has been keeping score, but since he left the sport there has been some heavyweight champions that would likely beat Fury with ease like Lennox Lewis, a prime Wladimir Kltschko, Deontay Wilder of course, Vitali Klitschko, Corrie Sanders and Alexander Povetkin. That’s just a list from the top my head. Can you imagine Tyson Fury fighting the likes of Lewis, Corrie Sanders, Vitali, Povetkin, Wilder and a prime Wladimir? I’m sorry, but I do not see Fury as being better than all of those heavyweights. I don’t see him being anywhere as good as any of them. Lennox Lewis would have likely stopped Fury in one round at best. I can’t see Fury going more than one round with Lewis.
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