By Scott Gilfoid: Deontay Wilder had his game face on at Tuesday’s promotional tour in New York with Tyson Fury to hype their December 1 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. After a fairly tame kickoff news conference on Monday in London in which Fury challenged Wilder to a spar, Deontay was prepared to turn the tables on Tuesday in getting in Tyson’s face right off the bat and making him look decidedly uneasy.
(Photo credit Amanda Westcott/SHOWTIME)
Fury (25-0,19 KOs) looked afraid when Wilder got right up in his face and started giving him a piece of his mind. Fury tried to make light of it, but you could see fear in his face. He looked afraid of the unbeaten Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs), as if he wasn’t sure if the Bronze Bomber would reach out and swat him with a right hand in the same way he would swat an annoying fly. The fear on Fury’s face was priceless. He looked like he had come unglued mentally. It’s a good thing that he didn’t have to stand in proximity for too long with Wilder, because he might have had a mental meltdown on the spot.
“Luis Ortiz was my most difficult opponent to date,” Wilder said to the media. “Tyson Fury might be the next. I haven’t fought him yet. I don’t play. I take this serious. I just fought Luis Ortiz, a southpaw, a guy that’s very crafty and skillful with over 300 amateur fights. If he switches southpaw after what I did to Luis Ortiz, then shame on him,” Wilder said.
I doubt that Fury will be around long enough for him to switch from the orthodox stance to southpaw on December 1. Unless Fury comes out in the 1st round fighting southpaw like he did in his fight with Martin Rogan, he might not ever get a chance to switch stances. Wilder will likely take him out straight away before he gets a chance to make the switch. I wouldn’t advise for Fury to change stances during any of the rounds, because he’ll leave himself at the mercy of Wilder’s right hand bombs if he tries to switch stances during the rounds. It’s not going to help Fury though if he does switch stances. Unlike Wladimir Klitschko, Wilder is comfortable fighting southpaws. If anything, it’ll be Fury who will be hurt if he tries to switch stances, because he’ll be more wide open to Wilder’s lead right if he switches stances.
”I got 10 years left in me. The minimum is seven,” Wilder said. ”I got a lot of things I want to do. If I complete my goals before then, I’m going to get out of there. Look at how many champions fought and came back..”
Wilder wants to finish his career with a record of 51-0 or better. He’s only got 11 fights to go before he achieves that mark. If Wilder continues to fight twice a year, he should hit the 51-0 mark in roughly five years from now in 2023. If Wilder is interested in going beyond 51-0, he could hang around for six or seven years to break that mark. Wilder might not have the all-time record though, because WBC minimumweight champion Wangheng Menayothin (51-0, 18 KOs) figures to have padded his record with weak opposition to have a record that is far out of reach of Deontay. Menayothin, 32, has been padding his record for years against guys with abominable records like 7-8-1, 21-44-2 and 7-5. These are just a few of his recent opponent’s records. If Wilder – or any top level fighter – fought those kinds of opponents, they’d be able to build an unbeaten record like Menayothin’s record.
”He had two warm-ups and came back,” Wilder said about Fury. ”He deserves the chance. I want the best out there. I think Tyson Fury would beat Anthony Joshua any day of the week with his elusiveness and awkwardness. When you fight a guy like Anthony Joshua, who is really stiff and you’ve got a guy that can move, he’s going to be hard to hit and he can’t handle that. He wants to be so proper [with his fighting style]. Nowadays, it’s different. It’s a new wave. You’ve got to have some kind of swagger with yourself when you’re in the ring. They say a great champion can dance and that’s what I do,” Wilder said.
Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn are willing to use Fury as an opponent even if he loses to Wilder. It would be funny if Fury winds up losing to Wilder and still getting a world title shot against Joshua before he does. That would tragic but predictable.
I don’t know if you can say that Fury deserves a title shot against Wilder after two soft fights against Francesco Pianeta and Sefer Seferi. I’d like to have seen Fury face someone like Kubrat Pulev, Adam Kownacki and Jarrell Miller to earn a title shot against Wilder rather than Seferi and Pianeta.
