By Tim Royner: Tyson ‘The Gypsy King” Fury wants to mentally break Deontay Wilder and force him to give up and quit inside the ring in their rematch on February 22. Fury (29-0-1, 20 KOs) had recently talked of wanting to knockout WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (42-0-1, 41 KOs) in their highly publicized rematch at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas.
Fury is now talking about making Deontay say ‘No Mas’ in the same way the ‘Hands of Stone’ Roberto Duran quit in the 8th round in his rematch against Sugar Ray Leonard on November 25, 1980 at the Superdome in New Orleans.
Duran beat Leonard by a 15 round decision since months prior in June 1980 by forcing him to brawl in close. Leonard was more than willing to fight Duran’s fight, but ultimately he paid the price in losing. In their rematch, Leonard moved constantly, and didn’t allow Duran to have a stationary target to hit. Duran quit in the 8th, famously saying, ‘No Mas’ in response to Leonard taunting him, and hitting with pot shots.
Fury: I’ll make Wilder say ‘No Mas’ in rematch
“Wilder hasn’t done anything that he didn’t do before,” said Fury at College Game Day. “People say he’s come on since he fought me. He had a fight against [Luis] Ortiz, and he beat an old guy, but he lost every round on his way to knocking him out. He’s happy to losing every round on his way to knocking somebody out.
“It’s like a competition where you lose every round, and knock a guy out,” said Fury. “He ain’t going to touch me this time. I’m going to make him say, ‘No Mas.’ Wilder will say, ‘No Mas,’ in this fight when he can’t land, and make him look like a right idiot. Looking back at all the great fights.
“This is the greatest fight of our era by far,” said Fury. “You’ve got two undefeated world champions. 6’9” vs. 6’7″. A Brit vs. an American, a talker vs. a talker, an entertainer vs. an entertainer, a pure boxer vs. a pure puncher. This is a clash of styles. I was looking back at all the great fights of all the generations, and the great boxer always beat the great puncher,” said Fury.
IIt’s difficult to foresee Fury being able to raise his level of taunting and mocking Wilder to infuriate or embarrass him enough to quit like Duran did against Leonard. Fury did a massive amount of taunting of Wilder in their fight last December, and it didn’t stop him from trying to KO him with every shot.
That’s the way Wilder is. It’s built into his DNA to load up with every shot in hopes of knocking out his opponents. Wilder is like a pure power hitter in baseball, who doesn’t care how many times he strikes out. All he cares about is hitting a homerun.
Tyson convinced his boxing skills will carry him to victory
“George Foreman was 40-0 with 27 KOs, and he was only 25 when he fought Muhammd Ali,” said Fury. “The great boxer beat the great puncher. I don’t think it’s a fair match-up, because they should match fighters against fighters, so it could make for a fair fight.
“If you’ve got a great boxer vs. a great puncher, then the boxer usually wins,” said Fury. “It’s not that something went wrong in the game plan. It’s called heavyweight boxing. One punch changes everything, and I paid the price, that’s it. I backed up in a straight line, and got clipped with a right hand, and it was a good night.
“That’s all she wrote,” said Fury about being knocked down in the 12th by Deontay. “But then I rose from the canvas like a Phoenix from the ashes, and shook him off, and finished the fight the stronger man. I really don’t know,” said Fury when asked how he got up from the 12th round knockdown. “Wilder says he concussed me. Maybe he did, who knows? I don’t remember,” said Fury.
Moving constantly and slapping with his shots will work for Fury to win rounds, but it won’t matter if he can’t handle Wilder’s power. Fury is going to try and build up a big lead, and then sit on it to win a decision. It’s going to be hard for Fury to do that, because Wilder is going to tire him out with his pressure.
Seeing these big right hands whiz by his head repeatedly is going to be stressful for Fury, since he knows already what will happen if any of those shots land.
Fury discusses reason for changing trainers
“I’m looking forward to setting the record straight,” Fury said of the rematch with Wilder. “I beat him last time 10 rounds to 2, and got a draw. It was a very controversial decision. This time it’s going to be different. I’m going to take him out of the judges’ hands, and get the victory. I think we’re going back to the basics. And I trained with Sugarhill Steward back in 2010, and we got on like a house on fire.
“I think I needed a bit of a change, because I’d become a bit stale,” said Fury about him changing trainers. “And I was doing repetitive things day in and day out for years. I needed a change. If you look at team sports. If you’re having an off day, you have the other guy to carry you or they’ll do substitutions or whatever they do. In a boxing fight, if you have an off day, you get knocked out,” said Fury.
Changing out Ben Davison for Javan Steward and Andy Lee was a good move on Fury’s part, being that it gives him two experienced guys in his corner. Davison lacked the experience that Lee and Steward have going for them. You must give Fury credit for doing as well as he did being trained by arguably a novice trainer in Davison.
Fury is still going to need to try and come up with a way to impress the judges, because Wilder’s harder punches will be given more weight. There’s no way that Fury can match Wilder’s power, so he’ll need to try and stop him somehow.
Otto Wallin caught Fury on an off night last September
“There’s no off days. In my last fight, I had an off day,” Fury said. “I wasn’t feeling great, and I was feeling a little under the weather. I got a massive cut of 47 stitches. Nothing went right on the night, but I managed to grind out a victory. That’s what champions do. They win when they’re not feeling great. Footwork is the most important thing for me. A very wise trainer told me. ‘Your feet will get you in trouble, and get you out of trouble again.’
“Not a lot of people today practice the footwork in the sweet science of boxing,” Fury said. “They look for strength, they lift a lot of weights, and look for the one-punch knockouts. It’s great for the highlight reel. What pays the bills are the skills, and if you fail to learn the skills at the top level, you will be found wanting. Just like Wilder did last time, and like he’ll do on February the 22nd,” said Fury
Tyson isn’t giving the 6’5 1/2″ Otto Wallin much credit by discrediting his performance against him by saying that he had an “off night” in struggling to a 12 round decision over him. The truth is, the 29-year-old Wallin had the size, reach and the confidence to give Fury problems.
Although Fury tried hard to use his mind games on Wallin by taunting him throughout their fight the big Swede didn’t lose his focus. He continued to pursue Fury around the ring, hitting him at every opportunity.
Wallin showed that Fury is vulnerable against fighters that ignore all the feints that he uses. Additionally, Wallin threw a lot of shots at Fury’s midsection, and he was able to land there with a high percentage of his shots.
