By Scott Gilfoid: Tyson Fury surprised a lot of fans on Saturday by saying that he hopes WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder will meet him in the center of the ring for a war on December 1.
Fury (27-0, 19 KOs) says he wants to stand and make it a fight with the unbeaten KO artist Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs), who possesses true one-punch power.
Even Anthony Joshua wouldn’t want to stand in the center of the ring to test Deontay’s punching power. For a feather-fisted fighter with a history of having a chin problem like Fury, it’s a recipe for pure disaster if he chooses to stand his ground for any time in the fight, let alone for 12 rounds.
“I want Wilder to do as he says and meet me in the middle of the ring at Staples Center and have a war,” Fury said on his Twitter. “Let’s make this a 4-round fight for the fans. F–k game plans. Let’s just smash each other all over the ring. Blood and snot and guts everywhere. Bronze Bomber, be a man and meet me!”
It’s more likely that Fury is just talking to try and throw Wilder off by giving him the false impression that he’s going to come to fight. The likely reality is that Fury will run for the hills on December 1, and be in danger of being disqualified by the referee. We saw the way that Fury fought against Wladimir Klitschko in 2015. Fury ran around the ring for 12 rounds, leaning against the ropes and scratching with his punches. It was awful to watch. The fight was close enough to be scored a draw, but Fury edged it. It was a fight that Fury didn’t win. Wladimir lost it by refusing to throw punches. To this day, there’s something very, very strange about that fight with the way Wladimir followed Fury around for 12 rounds without throwing punches. Wladimir had absolutely nothing to fear in throwing his power shots with abandon, as Fury was one of the weakest punchers he’s ever faced, and yet he treated him like a knockout artist. The way that Wladimir fought against Anthony Joshua in 2017 was entirely different. In that fight, he was throwing power punches against a guy that could knock him out. Why didn’t Wladimir do that against Fury? It was very strange. Wilder isn’t afraid to throw punches, and he’s going to have an easy time knocking him out unless Fury can find some power by December 1 to make it a fight.
If Fury is serious about wanting to stand and have it out with the 6’7″ Wilder from the opening bell, then this surely suggests that he wants to get it over with straightaway and not try and survive for 12 rounds like most boxing fans are already predicting he’ll do. Most fans believe Fury will come to the fight with his track shoes on the night and run from Deontay for as long as he can before he eventually puts him out of his misery with a right hand blast to the head. The fight isn’t expected to go for more than four rounds. Even if Fury does run, he lacks the mobility to elude the long-armed Wilder, who is good at cutting off the ring against runners.
Wilder-Fury will be fighting on December 1 on Showtime PPV at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The undercard is still being worked on at this time. The fights that are rumored to be taking place on the card are as follows: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. TBA, Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis vs. Abner Mares and Leo Santa Cruz vs. Gary Russell Jr. Don’t be surprised if none of those fights actually happen.