By Scott Gilfoid: British and Commonwealth champion Tyson Fury (15-0, 10 KO’s) has picked a weak one with his choice of Nicolai Firtha (20-8-1, 8 KO’s) to fight on September 17th in Ireland. This was supposed to be Fury’s big fight with an exciting opponent.
Instead, we’ve got Fury facing a big journeyman with no power to speak of and four losses out of his last eight fights against largely 2nd tier opposition. Great fight, eh? It’s not normal for fighters to take a step down in competition immediately after winning a domestic level title like Fury did. They generally try at least to keep moving forward against increasingly better opposition. Not Fury. He’s facing a guy who’s best win of his career on paper is a victory over Tony Grano, who isn’t exactly a household name.
“There will be two giant heavyweights trying to knock each other’s heads off on September 17th in Belfast,” Firtha said in an interview at eastsideboxing.com.
Firtha says he wants David Haye or Robert Helenius next if he gets by Fury. What a dream. Even if he did beat Fury, do you honestly think Haye would take a fight against a little known guy like Firtha off of a win over Fury? Heck, Haye won’t even fight Fury because the money isn’t big enough. So why would he fight Firtha if he were able toe expose Fury? It’s not going to happen. This is neither here nor there, because Firtha won’t beat Fury.
This is a safe fight for Fury and good match-matching if you want to call it that. I don’t see it as good matchmaking but more of an example of playing it safe by putting Fury in with a soft touch to pad Fury’s record. I suppose if he fights guys like this for the next two years, Fury’s record will look mighty impressive and he can crow to the British public that he’s ready to fight the Klitschkos. What a joke.
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