By William Mackay: Undefeated heavyweight Tyson Fury (4-0, 4 KOs) finds himself facing a tough and experienced Mathew Ellis (20-6-1, 9 KOs) this Saturday night at the York Hall, in Bethnal Green, London. Ellis, 35, sees a lot of parallels between Fury and himself earlier in his boxing career when he was just starting out. Indeed, Ellis started off his career with a 17-1 record with 9 KOs after five years as a pro, but things went quickly downhill when he increased the level of competition in facing Denis Bakhtov who defeated Ellis by a 5th round TKO in 2002.
Since then, Ellis has lost four of his seven bouts in the past seven years, losing to fighters like Audley Harrison and Enzo Maccarinelli along the way. Ellis thinks that Fury’s lack of experience will be his undoing when he steps it up against himself, who he sees as being on a higher level than Fury.
Ellis points out that Fury hasn’t faced anyone as of yet and sees that he’s made a mistake in taking on a fighter with as much experience and talent as himself. That argument may be hard for Fury to accept, especially given that Ellis was knocked out in the 2nd round in his last fight against the cruiserweight Maccarinelli in December.
Fury may or may not be the fighter that some people think he is, but he appears to have the goods in watching him fight. He’s a lot bigger than Ellis at 6’7″ compared to Ellis’ short 5’11”, so any comparison that Ellis is making with Fury seems pretty ridiculous and hard to accept.
Ellis might be better off comparing himself to other British fighters his own size rather than a fighter as huge as Fury, who fights tall, rarely gets hit and has much bigger power than Ellis. There’s nothing that is comparable about the two fighters when you get down to it.
Fury has knockout power in either hand, punches like a mule to the body and moves in and out with ease. If I were to compare Fury’s defense with any fighter, I’d have to say that it compares more favorably with a young Wladimir Klitschko rather than someone as slow and plodding as Ellis.
Fury backs away quickly when attacked and has the added ability fight going backwards by throwing powerful hooks. He’s nothing like Ellis whatsoever. Fury’s offense if similar to former heavyweight challenger Gerry Cooney, a 6’7″ powerful heavyweight who used to like to throw big body shots at close range.
Cooney, however, wasn’t as effective as Fury appears to be on the outside with his straight right hands. Cooney had a much better jab than Fury, something that Tyson needs to work if he wants to find success against better fighters than Ellis.
Fury, 20, is on the fast lane to a British title. He doesn’t want to waste time fighting his way into a title in four to five years like many heavyweights and is already looking at stepping it up in the next year if not this one in a title fight. Ellis is just one more fighter that’s in his way to the top.
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