By Scott Gilfoid: #3 WBO Christian Hammer (17-3, 10 KOs) feels he’s going to have no problems whipping the UK’s Tyson Fury (23-0, 17 KOs) in their clash next month and ruining his dreams of facing Wladimir Klitschko and Tyson Fury in mini-mega fights in the future.
Hammer and Fury will be meeting on February 28th at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Hammer sees his talent level being too much for the 6’9” light hitting Fury, and he thinks the guy made a mistake of picking him instead of another opponent for his tune-up fight on 2/28.
Hammer, 27, has been given a very, very generous ranking by the World Boxing Organization based on what little he’s accomplished during his career. With a No.3 ranking, you would like to have seen Hammer at least beat one decent quality opponent during his career, but unfortunately that hasn’t happened.
His wins are all over fodder type opposition, and he’s not even looked good in beating those guys. He has a win over journeyman Kevin Johnson in a fight that he arguably lost but was still given a decision in December 2013. I saw the fight and had Johnson winning a comfortable decision. The fight took place in Germany.
“Nothing I’ve seen worries me at all,” Hammer said about the Fury fight. “I feel that’s he’s made a big, big mistake choosing to fight me, but full respect to him, he could have avoided me and chosen a much easier opponent and keep his record and titles intact and also his world title fight against Klitschko.”
I don’t know that Fury made a mistake in picking Hammer to fight, but I do see their being a slight chance of an upset. Hammer is kind of like Dereck Chisora 2.0, and I think in theory that this is a fight that Fury will do well. But Hammer can pop a little and if he doesn’t get dispirited in the early going the way that Chisora did, he’ll always have a chance to put Fury on his backside for the 10 count.
We’ve seen Fury dropped before during his career by non-punchers, so a guy with Hammer’s power has as good a chance to KO Fury then anyone. Obviously, Fury isn’t being matched against big punchers, and you have to see Hammer as part of the continuing pattern of him being put in with guys that aren’t big threats to planting him for the 10 count. But if Hammer does land something big, he’ll definitely but Fury down for the count. Fury’s chin is fragile enough to where even a limited guy like Hammer has a chance of knocking him out.
“I’m coming here to do one thing and one thing only, to beat Tyson Fury and earn my right to fight Klitschko,” Hammer said.
I shudder at the thought of Hammer being the one that faces Wladimir Klitschko in the future. That would be as bad as Wladimir’s fights against guys like Jean Marc Mormeck and Ruslan Chagaev, both of which were horrible mismatches. But then again, Wladimir vs. Fury is just as bad as those fights, and I guess doesn’t matter if Hammer gets the fight with the Ukrainian star. Neither Hammer nor Fury stand much of any chance of beating him. The only guy that stands a good chance of beating Wladimir is Deontay Wilder.
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