By Scott Gilfoid: David Haye couldn’t help but to notice how fat IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) has become since his upset win over former world champion Wladimir Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) since their fight last November.
Haye now has doubts whether the 27-year-old Fury can beat Wladimir in their scheduled rematch on July 9 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK. Fury has packed on close to 60 pounds of pure blubber on his 6’9” frame and his training camp has turned into what amounts to be a fat farm to lose lard rather than a training camp to work on tactics, power and stamina. Haye now wonders whether Fury will balloon up in weight in the future and wind up like former world champion Buster Douglas, who put on a great deal of weight after he stopped fighting and ended up briefly in a diabetic coma.
David Haye believes Tyson Fury is “grossly overweight” and heading for defeat against Wladimir Klitschko in their rematch on July 9.
In looking at how obese Fury has become in just six months of eating. I don’t know how a professional athlete could let himself go in the way that Fury has since his very, very narrow win over Wladimir. If it were me, I would have taken a look at how horrible I was against Wladimir and I would have been working like heck to improve because I would know that I wouldn’t be able to hold onto those titles for any length of time. Fury seems to have been patting himself on the back for the last six months instead of seeing his win as a case of him fighting a completely shot Wladimir.
The Wladimir we saw last November was nothing like the younger version of Wladimir that had dominated the heavyweight division. Even before Wladimir became a world champion, he was so much better than he looked last November and last April against Fury and Bryant Jennings. The 40-year-old Wladimir has lost a TON from his game. It’s actually quite sad to look back at some of Wladimir’s old fights against the likes of Ray Mercer and Jameel McCline and then look at how his skills have deteriorated recently.
With the way that Fury has been crowing about his win over Wladimir, you would think he believes he beat a prime version of the Ukrainian fighter. He didn’t. Just look back at some of Wladimir’s old fights and you’ll see how much he’s lost from his game. Fury barely beat a shot Wladimir, and that tells you where Fury is. I see him as a paper champion and nothing more. He’s a knockout waiting to happen, and he’ll probably get whipped by Wladimir in the rematch due to all that weight he’s got to take off for the fight.
“Looking at the press conference it looked like he had completely taken his eye off the ball,” said Haye to ESPN.com. “Wladimir Klitschko won’t have done that. Really, it was quite sad to see a young world champion looking grossly overweight. Ten weeks away, he shouldn’t be worrying about losing weight but worrying about tactics, punches, angles, timing, rhythms, strategies.”
Yes, I agree with Haye. It is quite sad to see how Fury has let himself go now that he’s become a paper champion. The thing is, I don’t see him losing all that lard before July 9. It took Fury five months of solid eating to put that weight on, and he’s not going to take it off in eight weeks of dieting and exercise. It doesn’t work that way. Fury will wind up taking off a lot of muscle weight along with his fat, and a lot of the fat will still be there by July 9 when he faces Wladimir. He’ll just be a skinny fat person.
To take off the kind of fat that Fury put on, he needs a solid six to seven months of training and eating correctly. I wouldn’t say he should diet because that means weakening yourself by not eating enough calories. I think Fury just needs to eat a sensible diet that limits the amount of treats that he puts down his gullet. A person needs fat in their diet and if he tries to go no-fat on a diet, he’ll lose muscle and probably what’s left of his hair.
“He’s doing a Michael Douglas, who beat Mike Tyson and then ate himself into a diabetic coma. People will say you just flukes it. Fury could lose it if he loses the rematch,” said Haye.
I think it’s a given that Fury will now lose to Wladimir. I thought he had a decent chance of beating Wladimir before he put the weight on, but now that he’s packed on a ton of pure blubber, I can’t see him winning. Losing 60 pounds during training camp is just insane. It’s now s medical issue for Fury rather than just a fight in my opinion. He needs to take that weight off for the sake of his health and his future rather than just taking it off for the fight. It goes without saying that if Fury keeps eating like he did in the five months after his win over Wladimir, he’ll be heading towards ill health in a short period of time.
I could see Fury eating himself to 400 pounds within a year, and that would be beyond the point of no return. I don’t think it would be possible for Fury to take that kind of weight off to resume his boxing career once he gets that heavy. It would be too much weight and a lot of that fat would still be there no matter how hard he tries to burn it off with exercise and dieting.
As far as his fight against Wladimir goes, I don’t think It’s possible for Fury to win the fight because he’s going to be too weakened from having taken off the 60 pounds during training camp. I mean, I don’t think Fury will be able to take it off. He might get 40 pounds of the fat off, but I see the other 20 pounds still being there. The other weight he’ll take off will likely be lean muscle tissue from dieting and too much exercise in a short period of time. Fury’s weight might wind up looking the same as in past fights, but I see him carrying more fat and less muscle due to the dieting he’s doing to strip the lard off.