By Tim Royner: Tyson Fury has it all figured out already how he plans on defeating IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua when the time comes for them to face each other in 2018. Fury, 29, says he’ll use a combination of upper body and foot movement to outsmart the unbeaten Joshua and get the better of him for 12 rounds.
Former heavyweight world champion Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) says Joshua gassed out against Wladimir Klitschko earlier this year while trying to land his big punches on him. Fury sees the same thing happening in his fight with Joshua. He’ll tire him out by making him miss for 12 rounds.
Fury is still quite large right now from having put on weight. If he’s going to outmaneuver Joshua inside the ring, he’s going to need to lose his pot belly and work on his stamina. Fury still hasn’t received his boxing license from the British boxing Board of Control. They’re waiting for the UK Anti-Doping hearing to decide on whether to let Fury fight again.
“He [Anthony Joshua] doesn’t have great footwork or upper body movement, and he doesn’t move too good on angles,” said Fury to Talksport.co.uk. “To beat someone with those attributes it would be hard but someone of my ability can move, box, and twist, and all I would have to do is make him miss a bit,” said Fury.
Fury went on to say that he beat Wladimir Klitschko by using movement, which is absolutely true. Fury did beat Wladimir by using his mobility and torso movement to get the better of him. What Fury doesn’t say is that it was still a very close fight, and Wladimir wasn’t throwing many punches at all.
Wladimir looked like he was afraid to throw his shots, so he gave rounds away by not doing anything other than follow Fury around the ring. Wladimir had his right arm cocked as he pursued Fury, but he wouldn’t let his punches go. In the 12th round, Wladimir finally did throw some right hands, and he was able to land them.
Joshua probably wouldn’t be afraid to commit to his power punches against Fury. If Joshua is going to lose the fight, he’s going to lose it while going down swinging. He’s not going to lose the fight for a failure to let his hands go the way Wladimir did. Joshua will force Fury to throw a lot more punches as well for him to win. Fury won’t be able to land a small handful and still scrape by and win a decision like he did against Wladimir.