By Sean Jones: Tyson Fury has his mind made up that he needs to knockout WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in their rematch in early 2020 in order for him to win. Fury (28-0-1, 20 KOs) believed that he was robbed of a victory in his fight with Wilder (41-0-1, 40 KOs) last December.
It was scored a 12 round draw. Fury would have won if not for Wilder knocking him to twice in the championship rounds. The second knockdown from a booming right-left combination that had Fury unconscious until the out of five.
.@Tyson_Fury is ready to blow the lid off of Las Vegas when he returns on Sept. 14 vs. the big Swede Otto Wallin.
This card will also feature a number of standout Mexican fighters just before Mexican Independence Day – one of boxing’s biggest weekends. More details soon. pic.twitter.com/FwYHpKqGDn
— Bob Arum (@BobArum) August 13, 2019
Tyson Fury has Otto Wallin business on Sept.14
Fury needs to get passed his next opponent Otto Wallin (20-0, 13 KOs) on September 14 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight will be shown on ESPN+. Top Rank Boxing announced the match this week. Provided that Fury wins that fight, then he’ll be facing Wilder in the first half of next year. Fury should win the fight against Wallin, 28, because this is another Tom Schwarz level contender that Top Rank is feeding the former IBF/WBA/WBO champion in an attempt to make him a star in the United States.
Matching Fury against little known contenders like Schwarz and Wallin is Top Rank’s method of turning him into a star without putting him in risky fights. It’s a simple way of trying to turn Fury into a star, but it could work. You can bet that the ESPN commentators will be mentioning nonstop during the week of his fight how Fury is the “lineal heavyweight champion of the world.”
Fury: Wilder doesn’t have a chance of beating me now
“Even for [Wladimir] Klitschko, I lost 120 pounds. So people have never seen the best Tyson Fury,” said Fury to ESPN’s First Take in explaining why he was held to a draw against Wilder last December. “A happy fighter is a dangerous fighter. I think he’s done an amazing job during his boxing career,” said Fury about Wilder. “But if you can’t beat a man that has had three years out of the ring abusing his body every day, he doesn’t have a chance in beating me now.
The shots he caught me back then, he wouldn’t land those punches again. It is heavyweight boxing. It only takes one punch, as we saw in the first fight. I was way ahead on the scorecards. Bang, I’m on the floor,” said Fury in talking about being dropped twice by Wilder in round nine and twelve. In heavyweight boxing, one punch can change the outcome. I’m winning every round, and then getting knocked out in the last. You can never say. But provided I don’t get clipped and knocked out. If it didn’t happen, then I beat him easy, very easy,” said Fury.
Fury was getting hit in his last fight against Tom Schwarz, and he looked to be in good shape. It might not matter how match fit Fury is for the rematch with Wilder. Taking Wilder’s power shots will be just as hard for Fury no matter how conditioned he is. It comes down to basic physics. If Wilder lands his right hands with full force to the head of Fury, something is going to have to give. Either Fury will go down or Wilder will break his hand on his chin. It’s going to be interesting to see what the end result will be.
Fury says he’s definitely knocking out Wilder in rematch
“The one thing I will not do this time, the mistake I made last time, is to believe it’ll be a fair playing field, because we know it’s not going to be,” said Fury. “So I mus knock him out to win. I don’t believe I can get a points victory over here. And, I clearly won that last fight [against Wilder]. I out-boxed him every round apart from the two rounds he knocked me down in. So how do you win a fight if you lose 10 and win two? It’s clearly not possible for me to get a points victory. So I have to change my style, which I’m happy with, because I’ve never been as strong. I’ve never been punching as hard, and I’ve never been as confident as I am today.
I’m definitely coming to knock him out this time. If it was Wilder that I fought last June, the same outcome would have happened to him as it was for [Tom] Schwarz. One million percent. It’s either going to be him or meI’m not going to tip tap around boxing, because we know where that got us last time, don’t we? Every single time I backed it up,” said Fury in response to Max Kellerman pouring compliments over his head about how he backs up his tough talk,” said Fury.
It’s a must that Fury at least try to knockout Wilder, because if he doesn’t, he’s going to get stopped. Wilder is looking more powerful now that he’s bulked up to the low 220s. The right hand that Wilder knocked out Dominic Breazeale with would have done major damage to Fury.
Fury was given a huge break by the referee in the Wilder fight
Fury believes he can’t win a decision against Wilder in the U.S. A lot of boxing fans would argue that the judges and the referee bent over backwards to make sure Fury was given more than a fair deal against Wilder. If Wilder had fought Fury in the UK, and been clipped the way Tyson was in the 12th round last December, it’s likely the referee would have stopped the fight. Fury would have been the winner.
The referee Jack Reiss gave Fury every chance he could in giving a count to him while he was clearly out cold in the 12th. There aren’t too many referees that would have done what Reiss did. The judges also gave Fury a break in giving him rounds in which Wilder landed the far harder punches. If the judges that worked the first Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin fight had scored the Wilder-Fury fight, it’s likely Wilder would have won. He landed the cleaner, and harder shots in every round of the fight.
Fury wanted to entertain fans during Schwarz fight
“Going into the Tom Schwarz fight, it was no secret that I needed rounds,” said Fury. “So preferably, [trainer] Ben [Davison] would have liked me to take him a few rounds. He wanted me to take him into five, six, seven, eight, nine. But in my mind, I was thinking this is Las Vegas; I’m going to put on a show, and I’m going to get rid of him.
I was going to do it in one, but then I decided I’m going to do it in the second, and I made it happen. People say that Tyson Fury isn’t a big puncher, because of my style, because I usually don’t take risks of being hit back. When I fight people, it’s usually a one-sided contest. I hit them, and they hit nothing. It’s going to be boring,” said Fury.
Fury had no choice but to let his hands go in the Schwarz fight last June, because the German fighter was coming after him in looking to and some nice shots. If Fury didn’t let his hands go, he would have taken a lot if heavyweight shots. Fury does need to change his fighting style if he wants to beat Wilder.
Tyson Fury says he hits as hard as anyone in boxing
“What have you see [Wladimir] Klitschko do so many times? Jab, Jab, Grab, jab and jab. But he was so successful,” said Fury. “So if I do that style, nobody in the world can beat me. But to make it exciting and to make it exciting for myself, then I’ve got to start mixing it up more. [Late trainer] Emanuel Steward told me I was one of the biggest punchers he’s ever had on the mitts. If you’ve asked all those trainers that have ever had me on the mitts or in sparring, I really do hit very hard. But I never loaded up for big punches, because I stepped out of the way so naturally, and I delivered punches with speed and accuracy rather than looking for one big punch. When I really want to let it go, I can hit as hard as anyone in the world or harder,” said Fury.
Fury doesn’t hit as hard as Wilder, Anthony Joshua, Dillian Whyte, Joseph Parker or Daniel Dubois. You could probably throw in 15 to 20 other heavyweights that hit harder than Fury.