By Scott Gilfoid: Tyson Fury (24-0, 18 KOs) is only days away from fighting in the biggest bout of his life against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (64-3, 53 KOs) this Saturday night at the ESPRIT Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany.
There’s all kinds of pressure on Fury in this fight because if he wins, he’ll be getting loads of sweet cash in a rematch with the 6’6” Ukrainian heavyweight. But if Fury gets whipped and knocked out badly by Klitschko like a lot of people think he will be, then his career will be the equivalent of a raging dumpster fire that no one will be able to put out.
I don’t know where Fury goes if he gets smashed by Klitschko other than perhaps retirement.
Fury says he wants to make Klitschko look stupid in beating him really badly. It’s unclear why Fury has grabbed on the idea of Klitschko being put in the position where he looks dumb for losing. Perhaps that’s some kind of fear that Fury has about himself or something, because it’s hard to picture Klitschko looking stupid in losing.
Generally when Wladimir has been knocked out, he usually goes down swinging. His KO loss to the late southpaw Corrie Sanders was the one exception. Sanders jumped on Klitschko almost immediately and knocked him out before he could make any adjustments to the lead left hands that Sanders kept nailing him with.
“I will make him look an idiot. I will make him look a fool and humiliate him in front of his own 60,000 crowd,” Fury said via ESPN.co.uk. “I will humiliate him before stopping him. I’m not going to points, I’m going to stop him.”
If Klitschko gets knocked out by a slapper like Fury, then he really must be over-the-hill in terms of his boxing skills and reflexes. There are more than a few fans who think that Klitschko has slipped several notches in the skills department in the last several years, and is now ripe for the pickings. However, there’s a difference between being ripe for the pickings against a talent like Deontay Wilder and being vulnerable to a known slapper like Fury. Heck, even if Wladimir is only 55% of what he was in his prime of his career, I think that’ll be more than enough for him to get Fury out of there on Saturday night in Dusseldorf.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZPRMSpGXjE
Fury’s problem is that Wladimir’s punching power doesn’t look like it’s dropped off all that much. He can still knock a hole through a wall with his left hook, right hand and jabs. Where Wladimir has clearly lost a lot is with his work rate, timing, reflexes and his punch accuracy.
If you look at some of Wladimir’s old fights from 10 to 14 years ago, you can see at once that he doesn’t have the work rate, hand speed and accuracy that he had back then. He’s definitely slowed down and has a problem hitting his opponents even when they’re just standing in front of him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuspWNM3UTA
I don’t think Wladimir has aged as well as his older brother Vitali Klitschko. When he was 39, he was still fighting at a very high level and totally dominating.
“This fight is going to be won doing many things, changing it up all the time, not giving him the chance to get into his routine or game plan,” Fury said. “Changing it all the time is the key and that’s what I will do.”
I don’t think there’s much Fury can do in this fight. His jab is pitiful compared to Wladimir’s, he can’t fight on the outside, and his punching power is nonexistent. The only thing that Fury can hope for is if Wladimir suffers another calf injury, and becomes immobile so that Fury can jump in and out.
If Wladimir doesn’t get injured, then it’s going to be awfully tough for Fury in this fight because he’s not going to have the mobility or the power on his shots for him to get Wladimir out of there.
Fury sure as heck isn’t going to be able to beat a fighter as talented as Wladimir by a decision. If Fury tries to slug with Klitschko, then he’s going to be getting nailed with some tremendous shots. If Wladimir’s opposition hasn’t been able to take his power shots, then I definitely don’t see a fragile-chinned fighter like Fury being able to take his punches either.
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