Joshua respects Tyson Fury’s talent

By Boxing News - 12/26/2017 - Comments

Image: Joshua respects Tyson Fury’s talent

By Jeff Aranow: Anthony Joshua freely admits that he sees Deontay Wilder as flawed, but he has nothing but respect for the talent of former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs). Joshua feels that Fury’s unpredictable fighting style makes him a hard fighter to deal with when he’s in shape for his fights.

Joshua says Fury is more vulnerable when he tries to fight his opponents instead of using his size to fight in a crafty manner.

Joshua, 28, has to hope that Fury will want to stand and fight him the way he did John McDermott and Steve Cunningham for him to have a better chance of winning. The fight that fought Wladimir Klitschko would be a nightmare for Joshua, who is shorter the 6’9” Fury by 4 inches at 6’5.”

“I always say I think Fury if he comes back in shape. Reason is as I said I just think he’s awkward in the mind and he’s awkward in his style,” said Joshua to Sky Sports. ”Everything about him is unpredictable. This is the situation. You just don’t know.”

For Joshua to beat Fury, he needs him to give him old fashioned brawling type of contest. Joshua doesn’t have the mobility, stamina or the overall boxing skills to deal with Fury if he sides to toy with him the way he did Klitschko. Joshua doesn’t have Klitschko’s athletic skills, and we saw how easily Fury was able to confuse him. Joshua fights like he has 2 left feet at times inside the ring. He’s at his best when he has a guy that backs up to the ropes and just covers up the way Kevin Johnson and Eric Molina did against him. Joshua is out of his element when his opponent moves around the ring the way Wladimir was doing in their fight on April 29.

This is what Joshua had to say about Fury to Sky Sports News:

”He doesn’t have one significant style. He could move around the ring and try to steal the win,” said Joshua about Fury. He may just jab the whole fight. I’ve seen him fight guys like John McDermott years ago when he’ll just fight with you, Steve Cunningham when he just tries to fight with them and be more vulnerable”.

Joshua is probably hoping Fury will fight him in an old fashioned slugfest so that he can use his superior punching power to knock him out. There’s no question Joshua would have a big advantage over Fury if he decides to throw down with him by staying stationary, especially if the fight takes place next year like AJ’s promoter Eddie Hearn is hoping for. Fury would be not only fighting Joshua’s kind of fight, he would also be ring rusty and not back to full capacity. There are doubts whether a fighter like Fury can ever get back to the level he was at when he fought Wladimir Klitschko in 2015. Fury has been out of the ring for too long, and he’s put on a lot of weight. But Fury might not need to get back to that level for him to beat a heavyweight like Joshua. Just by being in shape, moving constantly and focusing on frustrating Joshua, Fury will have a great chance of winning the fight.

“So I don’t know what style Fury will possess but he’s good – he’s a man of many trades,” said Joshua.

Joshua can expect Fury to use the style he had for the Klitschko fight. He’s going to try and make it hard for Joshua to get his punches off. Since Joshua isn’t a fighter that is effective at throwing punches from long range, he’s going to need to try and get in close enough to land his big bombs on Fury. Joshua will have his best success in the early rounds while he’s still fresh. Joshua is good in the first 6 rounds. After that, he fades and starts slowing down. Fury probably land a lot of hard shots in the fight, but he will slap with his punches, and make it a messy affair for Joshua to have to deal with.

Getting the Joshua vs. Fury fight made will be problem enough. That could be more interesting than the fight itself. This will be a battle of egos. One of the two heavyweights will need to take less than what they want for the fight to get made. It’s difficult to imagine Fury agreeing to less than a 50-50 deal for the Joshua fight. Since Fury is already asking for a 60-40 deal in his favor, he would be giving up a lot to take just 40 percent of the revenue. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn likely will want to give Fury no more than 40 percent of the purse. If Fury is lucky, he might get 45 percent. Even that number would seem like a big stretch. Hearn will probably string out the negotiations for as long as possible in hopes of wearing down Fury and his management team until they finally give in. That’s what Hearn appears to be doing with Joseph Parker’s management. Hearn is using an old trick of stringing out the negotiations over a long period of time, getting Parker to agree to less little by little. It takes a good negotiator to realize what Hearn is doing, and it appears that Parker’s management isn’t seeing the strategy things clearly.

Fury has the talent to beat AJ, but he’s got to be in great shape, and he can’t ring rusty and win this fight. If Fury is smart, he’ll wait a couple of years before he makes the fight. The longer Fury waits the better it is for him, as long as he’s capable of still winning. Joshua vs. Fury will be huge by 2020 if the two guys are still fighting at a high level. Fury has the size to dominate for a long time. Joshua’s stamina problems could lead to him losing real soon. He’s going to need to put more emphasis on improving that aspect of his game for him to have long term success in boxing.