By Scott Gilfoid: Undefeated heavyweight contender Tyson Fury (19-0, 14 KO’s) sounds convinced that he’ll be facing 33-year-old former WBA World heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev (29-2-1, 18 KO’s) in November and he sees Chagaev as a good challenge.
Fury told Britishboxers.co.uk “He’s [Chagaev] told 10 in the world, he’s experienced, and I’m sure he’s going to give me a tough fight. I think he’d beat [Jean-Marc] Mormeck, and you got guys like [Tomasz] Adamek avoiding the fight. You’ve got [Sergiy] Liakhovich. I think Chagaev is the best of the lot.”
The best of what lot? Does Fury me the best of the bottom feeders in the division. I don’t quite understand the “best of the lot” comment. If Fury means that Chagaev is the best contender in the heavyweight division then I think he’s dreaming awfully bad. Chagaev isn’t the best contenders, and I personally have him ranked at the bottom at number #15 and I feel like I’m being too kind because I see him more as a number #30 guy at this point in his career. I see a lot of guys better than Chagaev. This just seems like another safe fight for the 24-year-old Fury.
It’s interesting that Fury is talking about Adamek avoiding a fight with him. What about Fury not fighting Deontay Wilder? Here we have Fury fighting 41-year-old Martin Rogan and 38-year-old Vinny Maddalone, yet he won’t fight Deontay Wilder? What’s wrong with this picture?
Chagaev is ranked #7 by the World Boxing Association, but he’s done pretty much zero for a lot of years. Chagaev’s last big win came against Nikolay Valuev in 2007, and I had Valuev winning that fight. Chagaev’s best wins since then have come against Matt Skelton, Kalie Meehan and Travis Walker. That’s disappointing. Chagaev has lost his only two fights since 2007, getting stopped by Wladimir Klitschko in a completely one-sided fight where the 5’11” Chagaev landed almost nothing in the fight, and then Alexander Povetkin.
I see Fury as another fighter that is being spoon fed weak opposition to protect his unbeaten record. When he fights anyone good he’s going to lose, believe me. You throw Fury in with Wilder, Kubrat Pulev, and the Klitschko brothers and he’s going to get battered and beaten. Heck, even David Haye would probably knock Fury cold.
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