By Tim Royner: Tyson Fury held a Los Angeles media day workout on Thursday at the Churchill Boxing Club in Santa Monica in preparation for his title shot against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) on Showtime PPV at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
(Photo credit: Esther Lin/SHOWTIME)
In a hilarious move, Fury singled out a reporter from the scrum and ordered him out of the ring, saying that he’s a hater telling the organizers, “get him out of here.” The reporter was quickly ushered out of the ring. Fury was calling the shots inside the ring. It was almost like watching a presidential press conference.
It seems the 6’9″ Fury keeps track of the reporters that give him positive press and the ones that don’t. Oh well. Fury getting thin skin now that he’s an underdog and facing a talent that is expected to knock him out in Deontay Wilder.
As far as Fury’s conditioning, he looks in good shape, and appears to be close to the condition he was in when he defeated Wladimir Klitschko three years ago. Fury still has a little over a month to trim off more weight to get ready for the huge shots from the Wilder. Fury is going to need to be a lot more mobile against the 6’7″ Wilder than he’s been in his two comeback fights against Francesco Pianeta and Sefer Seferi. Those guys had nothing to give Fury any problems. Wilder is a different story. He’s fast, powerful and big. The one-punch power that Wilder possesses with his right hand is going to be a threat to Fury.
Fury (27-0, 19 KOs) has a chance to not only rip Wilder’s World Boxing Council heavyweight title from him on December 1, but he can show the fans that his victory over Wladimir Klitschko wasn’t a fluke thing in 2015. A lot of fans think the only reason Fury won the fight is because Wladimir was mentally tied in knots, and not able to let his hands go because he wasn’t willing to let his hands go. The fans think Wladimir would have beaten Fury if his mind was right on the night.
“It’s a pretty easy fight to analyze, Deontay Wilder needs to connect with that big right hand and knock me out, and I need to not let him do that,” Fury said. “I need to do whatever I can to get out the way of that right hand, and make him worry about defending my punches,” Fury said.
Fury is going to be leaning away from Wilder’s shots, and circling the ring the entire fight. It’s predictable to guess what Fury will be doing to try and negate Wilder’s punching power. Fury might in fact succeed in keeping Wilder from landing one of his big right hand shots on the sweet spot, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to win the fight. If Fury is going to be spoiling for the entire 12 round fight, he’s not going to be able to win enough rounds fighting like that for him to have a chance of winning. Wilder, 32, is the world champion, and he’ll fighting in the United States. Fury’s spoiling won’t be rewarded if all he’s going to try and do is survive and not win. Saul Canelo Alvarez can get away with that kind of approach against Gennady Golovkin, but he’s a tremendous star in the States. Fury is a visiting fighter, who the casual boxing fans in the U.S have never heard of. For the most part, the American fans will be seeing Fury for the first time, and they’re not going to be impressed if all he’s going to be trying to do is not get hit all night long.
