By Dean Berman: Shawn Porter is leaning heavily in Tyson Fury’s side for him to defeat WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in their rematch on February 22. Porter states that Wilder is “spoiled” with the way he is over reliant on using his right hand to win his fights, and he thinks he must add different offensive weapons for him to defeat Fury in the rematch.
Shawn has made up his mind that all Fury needs to do is get inside on Wilder, and the fight is won.
Porter feels that Fury (29-0-1, 20 KOs) can beat Wilder if he gets inside on him, and stays there to neutralize his right hand. We saw Fury fighting a lot in close in his last fight against Otto Wallin with mixed results. Much of the time, Fury paid the price when moving forward to get in close. Wallin was catching Fury with straight lefts when he would work his way to the inside. Once Fury was on the inside, he was mostly trading short, clubbing shots that lacked power.
Porter is a good inside fighter, but it might be asking a lot of Fury for him to try and mug Wilder. Deontay knocked out Luis Ortiz with a short left hand on the inside in their first fight, so he’s not weak in close like Porter thinks he is.
Porter: Fury causes Wilder problem on the inside
“You can watch 4 fights of Deontay Wilder, and every time he hits a guy with a right hand, they’re at the very end of the punch,” said Porter to Fighthype. “You don’t see him hitting guys at close range with an overhand right or a short right hand. That’s not his specialty and what he does.
“He’s got to be on the end of that,” said Porter. “So I really like what Tyson Fury is talking about working on the inside. If you get touched more than you’re used to being touched, that does something to do you.
“If Tyson Fury is able to get on the inside of Deontay Wilder, which is something he didn’t do in the very first fight and be effective, that’s going to do something to Deontay Wilder’s mentality, and set something up going on later in the fight,” said Porter. “We’ll see from the opening bell that everything he’s been saying he plans on initiating. Right now, none of us can really fathom it let alone believe it,” said Porter about Fury’s 2nd round knockout prediction.
Fury can cause Wilder problems on the inside if he can stay there the entire fight, and not get nailed while he’s coming forward. In his fight with Wallin, Fury lowered his head and would invite the Swedish fighter to hit him while he was working his way in close. It worked for Fury in this fight because Wallin can’t punch, but it might be a different story if he uses that tactic against Wilder.
Porter hasn’t faced a one-punch knockout artist before in his career. If so, he likely wouldn’t be so gung-ho on Fury fighting Wilder on the inside.
Deontay Wilder is spoiled says Porter
“So, that’s something that remains to be seen,” said Porter about Fury’s knockout prediction. “Does he have the power to do it? I’m not sure. I don’t think so, but at the same time, heavyweights have a different type of power, and a different type of punch.
“Deontay Wilder has said that he has pillows for hands, but it’s the heavyweight division,” said Porter. “Sometimes you never seen those punches. I believe honestly Tyson Fury is crazy enough to think he can do it [knockout Wilder], and crazy enough to try it, and he’s crazy enough to where he wants to do that,” said Porter.
“I think up to this point in Deontay Wilder’s career, he has been very spoiled,” said Porter. “He’s been able to get away without using an unbelievable jab, and he’s been able to get away without body punching, and having a variety of offense. I think he’s been able to get away with just having a big right hand,” said Porter on Wilder.
Deontay hasn’t for whatever reason picked up more offensive weapons other than his right hand. He can jab though when he needs to, and he’s able to dominate with that punch.
Fury wants to be inside on Wilder
“I think this fight, if he hasn’t already, picked the game up,” said Porter about his belief that Wilder has to improve. “His offensive game has to be picked up very quickly before he gets inside the ring with Tyson Fury. I’m not here saying that before February 22nd, he’s got to learn how to throw the hook off the jab, or how to throw a full counter, go jab-body, head-body, head.
“It’s impossible for him to do that now, but he should be able to look back, and recognize something in himself, especially with this fight coming up with Tyson Fury, that ‘I need to have more offense,’ and figure out a way to use his offense, his jab especially more effectively in this fight,” said Porter on Wilder. “Yeah, you stay out of the range of someone’s power by staying on the inside.
“Of course, you can try to do it by staying away from the guy, but a guy like Deontay Wilder, you want to be on the inside,” said Porter. “The thought comes into play, ‘He can move his head, and he can wheel and deal here.’ He [Fury] has the ability to dig [to the body].
“We’ve seen him dig before,” said Porter about Fury. “It’s a little slap, but he does dig, and he goes to the body. Which in turn you score points when you touch someone’s body, and you break them down,” said Porter.
It’ll be interesting to see if Fury can fight Wilder on the inside. If he tries and fails, then Porter is going to look silly, because that seems to be his only idea that he has for Fury to beat Wilder.
Errol Spence Jr. allowed Porter to fight him in close. He would have forced Porter to stay on the outside.
Porter: Wilder can’t be patient against Fury
“Like in my fight against Errol Spence, it was doing something that hadn’t been done before,” said Porter. “I think Tyson Fury is on the right track against Deontay Wilder. I asked him [Wilder] immediately after his fight with Luis Ortiz, ‘Were you worried?’ because my team during the fight, we count rounds.
“We know going back to the corner if I won or lost, to pick it up and how to set the pace,” said Porter talking about Wilder’s last fight against Ortiz. “He [Wilder] told me, ‘I wasn’t worried at all. I knew the punch was going to come, and when it came, boom, there it is.’ I don’t accept that.
“Even when he gave me the answer, I was like, ‘Oh, alright.’ You’ve got to be a little worried, and you got to be a little bit concerned when the clock starts to click and you accept that,” said Porter in continuing on Wilder. “‘I hadn’t won a round in this fight.’ And I don’t think he can be as patient as he was against Luis Ortiz,” said Porter.
This makes no sense what Porter is saying about Wilder needing to have a sense of urgency in the Fury rematch. Wilder fought a lot better in his last two fights when he was calm and patient in knocking out Dominic Breazeale and Luis Ortiz. Why would Wilder want to deviate from that?
Again, Porter sounds like he has no idea what he’s talking about. Porter’s co-host Mark Kriegal seemed to know more about what he was talking about than he did, and he’s not from a boxing background. Kriegal is an Ivy league educated guy.
Deontay needs to set up his right hand
“Yes, I do,” said Porter when asked if Wilder was worried in his first fight with Fury. “He was worried, he got jumpy, and he started to rush, and he was very uneasy in the ring. I think in turn, his punches were too wide, they were not direct. I think the very first punch he knocked him [Fury] down with in the 7th [it was the 9th] round, it actually ended up being an overhand right.
“That was because he was just trying to find Fury,” said Porter in talking Wilder knocking Fury down. “This time around, that jabs needs to move, and he’s going to need to set that right hand up as opposed to just waiting, waiting, waiting, which is what he did in the fight with Luis Ortiz.
“The same thing happened to Ortiz. When the 10 second clock signaled, and then he relaxes,” said Porter. “‘I have another one [round],’ and then boom. He didn’t even have a chance to say, ‘I have another one.’
“When you get relaxed in the ring, there’s something about Deontay Wilder’s timing,” said Porter. “He’s able to catch you sleeping, and when he catches you sleeping, you go to sleep. Now we’re getting into the bread & butter of boxing,” said Porter.
It would help if Wilder used his jab to set up his right hand, but we’ll have to see. What Wilder likes to do is hold his left hand out in front of him to measure his opponents, and then come down the pipe with a laser right hand. It’s worked for Wilder in 41 of his 42 fights.
Porter sees Fury dominating Wilder inside
“When you turn fighters who aren’t good at moving their feet, and they’re not able to touch you,” said Porter. “Now you start taking something away from them, and start making them anxious, and start making them feel a little bit uneasy in the ring. Again, we’re talking about Tyson Fury working on the inside.
“Once you work on the inside, you step around instead of coming right back into that power,” said Porter on Fury using movement to get inside on Wilder. “When you step around, you’re going to force Deontay Wilder, and now the punches are here. I have to hold this, and turn. It sets everything up. We haven’t seen anyone on the inside against Wilder, and we haven’t seen anyone force his level of what he does.
“He’s able to get everyone right here,” said Porter on Fury. “We haven’t had. No one has challenged to get Deontay Wilder to do anything different from what he does. He’s crazy,” said Porter about Fury. “I love that about him in this fight. And I feel like he’s crazy enough to be confident about anything he wants to do in this fight going into this fight with Deontay Wilder,” said Porter.
If Fury tries to get inside on Wilder, he’ll get knocked out. When Fury was trying to get inside on Wilder in the first fight, he ate some tremendous right hands to the head. Porter might not remember the fight well. The main reason Fury moved all night against Wilder because he was getting butchered by him when he would stop moving or when he would come forward.
Wilder must change his fighting style, not Fury
“The fact that he’s crazy,” said Porter about Fury. “He understands that ‘I’m going to get hit, and no matter what, I’ve got to keep going and knock this guy out first. Based on the first fight, the guy that needs to change his fighting style more is Deontay Wilder.
“Deontay Wilder needs to be more effective through the rounds offensively, because if you give away the same amount of rounds as you gave up last time, and you don’t get as many knockdowns, then you get a bad result,” said Porter.
“That’s what’s going to happen. I definitely think he needs to consider being on the inside with Deontay Wilder,” continued Porter about Fury needing to get inside Deontay. “Not the entire fight, but different points of the fight. The thing is, when you’re able to change the levels of the game, you’re able to become unpredictable.
“You start to make that fighter think, and start to hesitate,” said Porter in believing that being on the inside wins fights. “I think if he’s able to get Deontay Wilder to do that, then he’s made it. He may be going onto something to win this fight. That’s the thing about this fight. If you’re close to Deontay, he’s going to let his hands go. But in the first one, we had Tyson Fury moving a lot,” said Porter.
If Porter was Fury’s coach, he might last for all of one fight before he fires him. As a trainer, you’ve got to have more ideas than, ‘Yeah, just get inside and you win.’ Nah, it doesn’t work that way, but Porter is arguably a one-dimensional fighter.
Fury had Wilder hesitant throughout the fight
“We had Tyson Fury moving his head, putting his hands down, doing a lot of this,” said Porter in talking about the showboating Fury was doing against Wilder. “He had Deontay very hesitant throughout the fight, and then he started swinging for the fences. It’s never too late to improve.
“I’m trying to improve in every fight that I have, and every training camp that I have,” said Porter. “We’re up here right now talking about what Deontay Wilder can do, but we’re all saying something that he should do. He’s more than capable, an unbelievable athlete, and he’s not just a big punching heavyweight.
“I think he’s an unbelievable athlete,” Porter said about Wilder. “He played basketball growing up, he’s fast, he’s quick, and he has that eye. He has that killer instinct, and I think that’s definitely going to come into play in this fight.
“If Tyson Fury wins, Deontay Wilder is going to want revenge, and I think Tyson Fury is crazy enough to give him that rematch,” said Porter. “If Deontay Wilder wins, Tyson Fury is crazy enough to call him out. And I think if it’s exciting enough, they will do it again,” said Porter.
Wilder DID throw a lot of shots in the Fury fight, and he wasn’t hesitating as much as Porter thinks. Deontay almost threw as many punches as Fury did, so he clearly wasn’t hesitating too much. Wilder landed with more power with the punches he was connecting with compared with Fury, and knocked him down twice.
The situations where Wilder wasn’t throwing punches is when Fury was moving a lot, and not presenting a stationary target. But when Fury was moving, he wasn’t throwing punches either. He was just moving for the sake of moving.
Prograis picks Deontay to beat Fury
“If both of them were Brits, I’d still roll with Deontay Wilder,” said Prograis to Fighthype. “He’s just so explosive. I think he’s like Mike Tyson, who is my most favorite fighter of all time. For me, he’s this age’s Mike Tyson, and people might take that in the literal sense or figuratively.
“He’s like this age’s Mike Tyson because he’s knocking everybody out,” said Prograis. “And he’s so explosive. When he says all it takes is one punch, he really means that. He can lose 12 rounds and hit you in the last round and knock you the f— out, and that’s what’s so exciting and so explosive about him. No, he wasn’t,” said Prograis about Wilder losing his last fight against Luis Ortiz through the first six rounds before stopping him in the 7th.
“Like he says, his boxing IQ is high,” Prograis said on Wilder. “You can’t tell from his fighting style, because sometimes he does look a little off, and off balance and goofy and clumsy, but if he’s setting it up. That’s what he’s saying he’s doing.
‘If he’s setting it up, then that’s what he’s doing,” said Prograis. “That’s exciting for me. You watching, and it’s looking like he’s getting whooped and having trouble, and then, BAM, lights out. That’s f—- exciting, and that’s what boxing is about, especially in the heavyweight division,” said Prograis on Wilder vs. Fury.
Prograis is right about Wilder looking clumsy at times in his recent fights, but his power would explode. For a lot of fighters, they see Wilder as skinny and uncoordinated, and they start taking chances. Wilder then surprises them with a big right hand, and the fight is over.