By William Mackay: Former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and current IBF/WBA champ Anthony Joshua traded trash talk earlier today in going back and forth about how they fought Wladimir Klitschko in beating the Ukrainian fighter. Joshua said Fury’s 12 round unanimous decision win over Wladimir in 2015 was a boring one that lacked action.
Fury mostly moved around the ring, making Wladimir miss with his shots and slapping at him with light punches. Wladimir stopped throwing shots after a while due to his low connect percentage. Fury fired back at Joshua by saying that at least he didn’t get knocked down by Wladimir and have to get up off the canvas to scrape out a win.
Ultimately the trash talk between Joshua and Fury should lead to a fight between them. Fury needs to be given clearance by the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC), and he needs to wait for the outcome of the UKAD hearing for their ruling over his drug suspension. Fury still thinks the Joshua fight can happen this year, but that would seem very unlikely. Joshua is in a holding pattern waiting for Wladimir Klitschko o decide whether he’ll invoke his rematch clause for a rematch in November or December.
Should Wladimir decide to retire instead, then Joshua must defend his IBF mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev. Joshua will be stripped of his IBF belt by the International Boxing Federation if he doesn’t fight Pulev. The IBF has given Joshua permission to fight Klitschko in a rematch, but they’re not going to let Joshua face anyone he wants. That leaves Fury out of the equation even if he does get the green light to start fighting again by the UKAD hearing and the BBBofC.
“He didn’t throw a punch. He didn’t come to fight,” Joshua said to skysports.com. “He just walked around the ring for like 12 rounds, it’s boring. It’s not winning, it’s how you win. His stock didn’t rise. Your stock has got to rise and he could have had the better win, but when people look at it, many years after, ask them whose fight they will remember.”
Contrary to Joshua’s assertion that Fury’s stock didn’t rise after his win over Wladimir, his stock did go way up after that win. Fury was celebrated widely by the boxing pubic worldwide. Fury wasn’t being looked down on y the fans. Fury’s win was a tactical one much like you see when watching Floyd Mayweather Jr. avoids punishment in his fights in winning decisions.
Fury didn’t try and punch with Wladiir because he knew that wouldn’t be a good idea. None the less, Fury won the fight and had tons of opportunities in front of him had he continued to fight. Fury didn’t deal with the success that he got from the win over Klitschko. Like a lot of fighters, Fury celebrated after his big win. Unfortunately for Fury, he got stuck celebrating a little too long and it led to him gaining a lot of weight and having a host of other problems outside of the ring.
Fury had this to say in response to Joshua’s criticism on his Instagram:
Better to win and be boring than getting dropped all over the floor and scraping a win,” said Fury. “I never got punched, you got carried off the canvas nearly. But winning is winning whether you win by an inch or a mile. It’s still winning and I still won. It’s not about the power, how hard you can punch, how good you can take one. It’s about the defence and hitting them and not taking the return. Almost like a fighter jet flying in the sky, he hits and then maneuvers fast, so he doesn’t get any returns, and that’s what boxing is about.”
Joshua should put his attention on the most likely fights that he has available to him against Wladimir or Pulev. A fight with the 6’9” Fury is going to need to wait until 2018 or later. Fury says he doesn’t need a tune-up fight before he faces Joshua, that’s all well and good. But he’s still going to need to be cleared by the UKAD and British boxing Board of Control before he can lace up his gloves and start competing again in the sport.
Fury should use his time wisely until then by losing the weight that he’s put on. There’s talk that Fury stopped training and is not trying to lose the weight. It’s unclear if Fury is going to wait until he’s allowed to start boxing again before he starts taking the weight off. That’s not good for Fury, because it’s not a good idea for him to let his weight get so high for a prolonged period of time.
It’s going to make it harder for Fury to take the weight off when he eventually starts training camp for his next fight. It’s better for Fury not to have his training camp be a fat farm rather than a training camp. When Fury does start training for the Joshua fight, he needs to be working on technique and his game plan rather than focusing on burning fat for the entire camp.
Fury would likely be able to get back down to 250 in a long training camp, but he might not be in fighting shape. He would look good, but there’s a difference between looking good and being in good fighting condition. Fury needs to work on his conditioning now so he doesn’t find himself in an unwinnable fight with Joshua in the future.
“Let me get my situation on track, get fit and then I’ll fight you. May the best man win.,” said Fury.
Joshua, 27, had an exciting fight with Wladimir on April 29 in stopping him in the 11th round at Wembley Stadium in London, England. The two giant heavyweights fought in front of 90,000 boxing fans that were cheering the entire time. The fight seesawed back and forth before Joshua hurt Wladimir with an uppercut in the 11th round, and then took him out with a furry of big power shots.
Wladimir was dropped twice in the 11th round before the fight ended. Fury didn’t like the way that Joshua was knocked down in the 6th round by Wladimir. Joshua got caught up trying to knockout Wladimir after dropping him in the 5th. Joshua forgot about his defense long enough for Wladimir to hurt him. Joshua also punched himself out by throwing too many shots in the 5th round. Joshua took a big gamble by letting his shots go in the 5th instead of keeping under control.
Fortunately for Joshua, he was able to survive the 6th and go on to get the knockout victory in the 11th. There was some concern in the 11th that Joshua might empty his tank while trying for a knockout in that round, but the referee stepped in and stopped the fight before we could find out if Joshua would fade or not.
It looked as if Wladimir was not going to be able to make it out of the 11th though. Joshua was not tired, and he had Wladimir trapped against the ropes as he threw one punch after another to the head. It was a great moment for Joshua. It easily the best fight of the year so far. Even Wladimir came out of the fight looking good because of his brave performance.
Fury called Joshua a “pumped up weight lifter.” We’ll find out eventually who the better heavyweight is between Fury and Joshua. The fight between Fury and Joshua won’t be happening in 2017.