Tyson Fury battles Christian Hammer on 2/28 in London, UK

By Boxing News - 12/24/2014 - Comments

fury777By Scott Gilfoid: #3 IBF, #4 WBO, #12 WBC heavyweight contender Tyson Fury (23-0, 17 KOs) will be taking a stay busy fight on February 28th against German based #6 WBO Christian Hammer (17-3, 10 KOs) at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Hammer is a weak puncher with limited size at 6’2″. In other words, he’s no threat to beating Fury.

Hammer, 27, is technically ranked in the top 15 given his ranking by the World Boxing Organization. However, none of the other sanctioning bodies has him ranked in their top 15, and it’s pretty easy to see why. He’s very slow, easy to hit, and he’s got an inflated resume filled with power puff opposition.

In terms of talent, I see Hammer as being on the same level as former Fury opponent Joey Abell. I think Abell might have a little more talent though. Hammer has lost to Taras Bidenko, Mariusz Wach and Robert Gregor. Hammer recently defeated journeyman Kevin Johnson by a controversial 10 round decision last year in December.

I saw the fight and I had Johnson winning that fight by a couple of rounds. Hammer looked awful and clearly didn’t deserve the decision in my eyes. The fight incidentally took place in Hammer’s adopted country of Germany.

I don’t rate Hammer as a top 15 contender, and I certainly don’t see him as a #6 contender as the WBO does. That’s a mickey mouse ranking if you ask me, but then again the WBO recently had Dereck Chisora ranked #1 with their organization at the time that he fought Fury in a WBO eliminator bout last November.

Interestingly enough, the WBO has Hammer ranked above Alexander Povetkin and Kubrat Pulev. That kind so tells you all you need to know about the WBO’s rankings in terms of the heavyweight division. If you watch Hammer fight and then watch Povetkin fight, there’s no way on earth that you can rank Hammer above Povetkin. It’s just a crazy ranking that makes zero sense. Hammer looks 2nd tier all the way yet the WBO has him ranked #6.

What’s funny about this fight is how Fury brags that he’s taking a high quality opponent.

“I’m not like these other fighters in the division who pussy foot around, take soft touches and call themselves fighters,” Fury said. “I could have taken an easy job at the O2 arena to keep my position safe for my world title fight against [Wladimir] Klitschko, but that’s not what Tyson Fury is all about. On paper it’s a dangerous job against Hammer.”

I rate Hammer as a soft job in the same league as Abell, but without Abell’s power. If Fury can’t beat Hammer then he has no business fighting for a world title. Hammer is arguably a huge step down from Fury’s last opponent Dereck Chisora, and I don’t see Chisora as a top 15 heavyweight. Chisora is someone that can beat the 2nd tier fighters, but he loses when he faces top tier guys.

Besides his controversial win over Kevin Johnson, Hammer’s best wins of his career have come against journeyman Danny Williams, Leif Larsen and Konstantin Airich. Sadly, those are the best of the bunch on Hammer’s rather than thin, thin resume. He doesn’t look good winning his fights, and he’s not been knocking out the fodder that’s been put in with him.

It’s one thing to face horrible opposition and knock them all out, but quite another thing when you’re getting extended by poor opposition and being forced to go the full 10 to 12 round distance.

Hammer isn’t a big puncher, which makes him perfect for Fury. The last knockout Hammer scored was last year in August against Larsen. Hammer has had to go the full distance in his last three fights against Johnson, Airich, and Irineu Beato Costa Junior. Like I said, I had Hammer losing the fight to Johnson, but I wasn’t surprised he got the win.



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