Tyson Fury vowing to break Tom Schwarz’s jaw

By Boxing News - 06/11/2019 - Comments

Image: Tyson Fury vowing to break Tom Schwarz's jaw

By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury (27-0-1, 19 KOs) is vowing to do damage to Tom Schwarz (24-0, 16 KOs) this Saturday night in their 12 round fight on ESPN+ at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fury turned down a lucrative rematch with WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in order to take the fight with Schwarz.

Fury also turned up his nose at a fight against Dillian Whyte, which would have earned him the rematch with Wilder. Some boxing fans think Fury is just looking for easy fights for the remainder of 2019 before facing Wilder in a rematch in early 2020. Fury fought to a 12 round draw with Wilder last December in a close fight.

Some of Fury’s fans thought he should have won, but they ignored the fact that he as knocked down twice. The referee gave Fury a huge break in not stopping the fight in the 12th when he badly hurt and seemingly unconscious after being dropped by Wilder.

Fury vows to break Schwarz’s jaw

Former heavyweight world champion Fury, 30, specifically is saying he’s going to break the 25-year-old little known German heavyweight Schwarz’s jaw in the fight. Fury is a light puncher with power more in line with a middleweight or even a junior middleweight. He can’t punch at all, so it’s difficult to take him seriously with what he’s promising to do to Schwarz.

“The only thing I know [about Schwarz] is I’m going to break his jaw and smack his ribs in,” said Fury on Monday in hyping his tune-up match against Schwarz. “I’m going to give him a black eye, a thick lip, and maybe he might lose a few teeth, who knows? I’ll figure him out within the first five seconds of the fight, because that’s what I do,” said Fury.

Fury facing an easy mark on Saturday

There’s not much for Fury to figure out. Schwarz isn’t even arguably the second the best heavyweight in his home country of Germany. He’s just a fighter with a record built on weak opposition that Fury’s promoters have picked out for him to fight. The idea is for the casual boxing fan in the U.S, to get excited at seeing Fury bowl over Schwarz. They’ll then become huge fans of his. What Top Rank is forgetting is that hype begins with the hardcore boxing fans, and it steamrolls from there with the casuals getting caught up with the huge interest. That’s how it goes.

Top Rank is going about it backwards in selecting a Schwarz, a mediocre heavyweight at best, and figuring that the casuals will get excited about the fight and it’ll create a snowball effect. That’s now how it works. You can’t build a star on the cheap in the U.S. You’ve got to match them up against talented fighters in a sink or swim mode. If they’re good, they’ ll win. If not, then they’ll end up like Anthony Joshua in getting exposed. This is a fight that Fury’s new promoters at Top Rank have put him in with hopes of turning him into a star in the U.S. Top Rank promoter Bob Arum wants the American boxing fans to care about Fury, and get excited at seeing him win. Arum thinks the average fan will get caught up in his life story.

“This is a massive attraction of a fight, the UK, Europe, America. This is going to be epic. This is going to be a boxing behemoth,” said Fury.

It’s hard to know for sure if Fury is serious about his belief that the Schwarz fight is going to be a “massive attraction” or not. Given the huge amount of criticism Fury has received from boxing fans since the news of his fight with Schwarz was first announced, you would have to believe that Tyson is just kidding around.

Tyson Fury to fight twice more in 2019

Fury says he’ll be fighting twice more in 2019 before he takes on Wilder in a rematch in early 2020. After Saturday’s contest with Schwarz, Fury will be back inside the ring in September, and then in December. Most boxing fans expect Fury to be matched against similar soft opponents as the Schwarz fight. The heavyweight division is poor as it is, but there are a few tough fighters that would give Fury all he could handle. He likely won’t be mixing up with any of the. Fury hasn’t given any hints about who he’ll be fighting in September and December, but it’s likely fighters from this list:

– Otto Wallin

– Agit Kabayel

– Dereck Chisora

– Kyotaro Fujimoto

– Robert Helenius

– Ali Eren Demirezen

– Richard Lartey

– Tyrone Spong

– Junior Fa

– Evgeny Romanov

Of those names, Helenious, Fa, Fujimoto, Wallin and Kabayel will have a high chance of getting the fight with Fury. These are all contenders in the top 15, so Fury can at least say he’s fighting a contender. What he wouldn’t say is these guys are nowhere near great fighters. They’re arguably far down in the food chain in terms of talent. Romanov (12-0, 9 KOs) defeated Wilder many years ago in the amateur ranks in 2008, but he’s undersized as a heavyweight at 6’0″ 223 pounds.

Fury vs. Romanov is a good fight for comparison purposes

Romanov would likely be better off fighting at cruiserweight, because he’s even shorter than the 6’2″ Alexander Povetkin and 6’0 1/2″ Oscar Rivas. The 6’9″ Fury would have too much height and reach for the 33-year-old Romanov. If Top Rank picks Romanov for Fury to fight in September or December, it would give him something to brag about to the media by saying he beat a fighter that stopped Wilder in the third round in 2008. That was an incredibly long time ago, but nonetheless some fans will be impressed by that.

Ideally, Fury needs to be facing taller fighters in his next two fights to get him properly prepared for what he’s going to be dealing with when he faces the 6’7″ Wilder in the rematch. Romanov is too short for him to be of any use to Fury. He needs someone tall, agile, powerful and athletic. Unfortunately, none of the above mentioned heavyweights have any of those attributes going for them. Wallin, 6’5 1/2″, is tall, but he’s slow, and he moves like he’s got lead feet. He’s nothing like Wilder. Whether that matters to Top Rank is unclear.

If the idea is to just make Fury look good no matter what, then any of the names from that list will do. However, they’re not going to prepare Fury for what he’s going to be dealing with when he gets inside the ring with Wilder again. Wilder seemed to have figured Fury out in the championship rounds of their fight last September.

Fury had been playing dodge ball with Wilder in the first eight rounds, swerving his punches, and hitting him with weak, pestering shots. But once Wilder figured out how to deal with Fury’s spoiling fighting style, he started dropping him repeatedly. In the rematch, Wilder will like start in where he left off in knocking Fury down hard. It’ll be interesting to see if the referee gives a count to an unconscious Fury like the referee that worked the Wilder-Fury fight last December.