By Scott Gilfoid: Tyson Fury (24-0, 18 KOs) isn’t worried about Wladimir Klitschko’s high powered offense. He believes that he has two ways of foiling the 39-year-old Ukrainian fighter in their fight on November 28th at the ESPRIT Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Plan-A is for Fury to lean backwards in an exaggerated manner to keep the 6’6” Wladimir from being able to land his left hook and right hand power shots. Plan-B for Fury is for him to switch to the southpaw stance so that he can nail Wladimir with left hands and uppercuts.
“I don’t think he’s expecting what I’m going to bring,” Fury said about Klitschko to skysports.com. “You can’t hit what you can’t see. I’m like lightning. Plan B is the old switch up movement and lean back. So what are you going to do from there? I’m going to box from the southpaw [stance]. I’m just going to be myself because I know he’s a stiff robot. He’s got three punches. He’s got a jab, he’s got a 1-2, and he’s got a left hook. So if I can’t beat a man with three punches, then I’m useless, ain’t I? You’re going to see the old lean back. I’ve got the old long leg, and I’ve got the old more than one meter reach. If I want to walk him down and do that [lean back stance] then how is he going to hit me?” Fury said.
Fury’s old lean back fighting stance might work against a shorter fighter with limited reach, but against a tall guy like the 6’6” Wladimir, I doubt that it’ll be very effective. Wladimir’s reach is almost as long as Fury’s, so I suspect he’ll still be able to reach him with his punches no matter how far Fury leans backwards to avoid his shots.
Further, Fury will be leaving his flabby midsection open for Wladimir’s shots if he chooses to lean backwards. Wladimir doesn’t usually throw body punches, but in this case I think he might make an exception to that rule if Fury chooses to lean backwards all night long. His fat midsection will always be there for Wladimir to nail him with right hands and jabs. I don’t know if Fury has factored that into his fight strategy.
Without any punching power to keep Wladimir off of him, I see Fury having a bad night on November 28th. He’s going to have to put it on the line if he wants to win the fight because he sure as heck isn’t going to beat a talent like Wladimir by using the “lean back’ and the “southpaw” stance to try and beat him.
Those styles might work against some of Fury’s past opponents like Vinny Maddalone and Martin Rogan, but they’re not going to be effective against Wladimir. To beat him, you’ve got to attack him and put pressure on him. It looks like Fury is mainly concerned with not getting hit rather than going on the attack. That means he’s thinking about survival rather than winning the fight.
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