By Nate Anderson: Getting in one more fight against a woefully over-matched opponent before his bout with John McDermott in September, unbeaten heavyweight prospect Tyson Fury (7-0, 7 KO’s) kept his perfect knockout record alive with a 3rd round stoppage over Latvian Aleksandrs Selezens (3-7, 1 KO’s) on Saturday night in a scheduled six round bout at the York Hall, in Bethnal Green, London.
Fury, 21, had little problems with the sloppy looking Selezens, hitting him pretty much whenever he wanted to in the one-sided fight. In the 3rd round, Fury hurt Selezens with a nice hook to the body and a big shot top the head. Fury then landed several more big shots to send Selezens down on the canvas. Referee Mark Green then stepped in and halted the fight at 0:48 of the 3rd.
In the 1st round, the thick looking Fury stood straight up throwing a lazy looking jab at the heavy 251 pound Selezens. Fury fought very slowly, as if he was trying to drag out the fight as long as he could for some reason. However, he looked bad, his punches slow and his work rate minimal. I suppose Fury didn’t have a reason to fight harder, because the weak-punching Selezens didn’t have the power to trouble him and force him to fight harder than he was.
The crowd looked as if they were starting to get restless with the slow pace of the fight by the end of the round. As if sensing this, Fury offered up a few tired looking right hands that were thrown with little conviction. Selezens responding by immediately grabbing Fury and holding on to make sure he didn’t keep hitting him. As the round was nearing the end, Selezens went after Fury for the first time in the fight.
However, Fury backed away nimbly and landed a couple left hands while retreating in a straight back. Other than a few uppercuts from Fury in the round, the action was slow and minimal. In the 2nd round, Fury plodded around the ring hitting Selezens with body shots and right hands to the head. Late in the round, Fury connected with a left hook that hurt Selezens and caused him to back up several steps as the round was ending.
At the start of the 3rd round, Fury came out throwing much harder shots as he looked as if he wanted to end the fight here and now. Fury began landing hard uppercuts to the head, and hurt Selezens with a left to the body followed by a right uppercut to the head. Selezens attempted to clinch but Fury nailed him with a left hook and then a right uppercut that caused Selezens to collapse slowly onto the bottom rope. The bout was then stopped at that point.
Although only listed as four more pounds than his previous weight of 256 for his last fight, the 260 pound Fury looked noticeably thick around the middle and slower than he had been in quite some time. After the bout, Fury blamed his poor conditioning on a back problem that had kept him out of training. However, he feels that he’ll be ready and in shape for his next fight against John McDermott on September 11th. Let’s hope so for Fury’s sake, because he looked slow against Selezens on Saturday night and very beatable.
The 6’9” Fury keeps winning but it would have been better hand Fury been matched a little tougher. Thankfully, Fury has McDermott next. That should be a good test for Fury to tell if he’s the real deal or not. It’s hard to tell whether Fury has the talent to be a top fighter because his opposition has been so horrible.
“He [Selezens] was just trying to hold and get close,” Fury said after the fight. “No one wants to spar with me…I’ll be 100% better next time out. I am not sure that anyone knows, but my back was bad. I know I wasn’t in great shape. I weighed 19 stone…I am looking to knock him [McDermott] into little pieces. After he boxes me, he’ll never want to box again. I’m going to destroy him. Chisora and all you guys out there, you’re getting it. And that’s a promise from Tyson Fury.”
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