By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten British heavyweight Tyson Fury (12-0, 9 KO’s) picked up his 12th victory on Friday night against previously undefeated Rich Power (12-1, 9 KO’s) with an unimpressive eight round decision at the York Hall, in Bethnal Green, London. Referee Jeff Hinds scored it 80-72. There’s no question that the 22-year-old Fury won the fight, as Power looked completely exhausted in the 2nd half of the fight and spent most of the time gasping for breath and trying to hold on. Fury looked little better.
To me, Fury looked like poor man’s version of heavyweight contender Alexander Dimitrenko. Although when I say ‘poor’, I really mean very poor version. Dimitrenko, who isn’t that great of a fighter, looks a heck of a lot better than what Fury did last night against Power. Fury was sloppy through most of the fight, and missed a lot of his shots. On some occasions, he’d miss so badly that he’d almost fall over.
Power, though, wasn’t in the position to take advantage of any of Fury’s mistakes because he just looked completely over-matched. Power looked like someone with only limited amateur experience. He was throwing almost no punches from the start of the fight and did little as the fight progressed. He just looked like someone that they dragged into the ring to make Fury look good. He didn’t look good, at least not to me. Maybe his British fans might think he looked good, but you’d have to have a really low bar for what you consider to be looking good.
Fury, 6’7”, dominated the first couple of rounds using his jab. He often came inside and threw short punches and did a great job of nullifying his own power. From the distance, Fury seemed incapable of landing his right and left hands. He’d telegraph his shots and because of his lack of hand speed and power, it would take forever for his shots to get there from the outside. This is why, I suppose, Fury spent most of the bout fighting on the inside.
He was able to get away with this against Power, because the guy wasn’t throwing any punches to speak of. But if this was a heavyweight with power, Fury would likely take punishment and get knocked out. He needs to develop and outside game because Fury doesn’t hit hard enough to compete with the bigger punchers in the division if he’s going to be giving up his height and reach and fighting in close.
Fury stayed busy and looked sloppy in rounds one through four. In the 5th, he began to sweat a lot and look even sloppier. While leaning on Power, Fury landed a nice shot to his back that dropped Power to the canvas. It was obviously not counted but it showed in perfect form how amateurish Fury is as a fighter. In the 6th round, Fury drove Power to the corner and was having his way with him when Power suddenly landed a huge left uppercut that knocked Fury’s mouthpiece out.
That seemed to anger Fury, as he then let looks a flurry of weak shots as he tried to score a knockout. Power was totally exhausted during the entire exchange. Fury just looked weak and average. The shot that Power hit Fury with wasn’t a huge shot for a normal heavyweight, but it was big for him because he wasn’t throwing anything. Had that been an average top 15 heavyweight, Fury would be getting hit with bigger shots than all night long. I doubt Fury last long against any of the top 15 heavyweights.
In the 7th and 8th rounds, Fury worked feverishly trying to score a knockout. He threw a lot of punches but just didn’t have the strength to take Power out. Goodness knows, Power was there to be knocked out, because the guys was bending over constantly gasping for breath. I’ve never seen someone so out of condition in my life. They really found a good opponent for Fury look good against, didn’t they? Fury continued to throw shots but he just looked weak and completely sloppy.
All in all, Fury looked terrible in winning the fight. I see him as a B level fighter and not someone that has the skills or the physical tools to make it to the top level. He’ll do okay in the Uk, but he probably won’t be the top guy over there. There’s a few other heavyweights that would likely easily beat Fury.
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