Tim Bradley prediction: Deontay Wilder STOPS Tyson Fury

By Boxing News - 02/20/2020 - Comments

By Kenneth Friedman: Tim Bradley is picking Deontay Wilder to defeat Tyson Fury by a 10th round TKO this Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Bradley is picking WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (42-0-1, 41 KOs) for a number of reasons. Above all, Bradley feels that Wilder knows how to land his right, and he’ll find Fury at some point in the fight to knock him out.

Bradley’s reasons for picking Wilder:

  • Fury’s punch resistance: Bradley questions whether Fury’s ability to take a hard shot may be diminished from the 12th round knockdown he suffered against Wilder in their first fight in 2018.
  • Wilder does better in rematches. In the two rematches, Wilder has had against Bermane Stiverne and Luis Ortiz, he knocked them both out
  • Deontay has figured out Fury’s fighting style
  • Fury’s cut that he suffered in his last fight. Tyson needed 47 stitches to close the cut over his right eye last September in his fight against Otto Wallin. That cut will likely open against Wilder

Wilder knows how to land his right hand

“Fury got aggressive, he had to be aggressive, and he had to get to the inside to take it to Tom Schwarz. So you get aggressive and think all offense and not defense, and you get hit 127 times, as he did against Otto Wallin,” said Bradley to Fighthype on Fury saying he’ll be more aggressive in the rematch with Wilder.

“So that means the more aggressive Tyson Fury needs to become due to the cut opening up, the more susceptible he’ll be to getting hit by Deontay Wilder’s right hand,” said Bradley. “This time I’m leaning towards the puncher because this time I believe Deontay Wilder understands how to land his punch.

“That’s the reason why. He knows how to land it. Deontay Wilder is the rematch king. He has two knockouts [in rematches against Luis Ortiz and Bermane Stiverne], and that’s the reason why I’m going with Deontay Wilder,” said Bradley.

As Wilder’s last two fights have shown, he only needs to land his right hand cleanly just once for him to KO his opponents. He stopped Dominic Breazeale and Luis Ortiz in one-punch knockouts.

In Wilder’s first fight with Fury, he knocked him down twice with right hands. Fury was lucky to get up off the canvas to beat the count in the 12th.

Bradley: Fury making a mistake gaining weight

“He ain’t learned from Andy Ruiz? 270?” said Bradley when told that Fury intends on coming into the fight at 270. “Listen, if you’re not knocking anybody out at 240, then you’re not knocking anybody out at 270. When I was at 140, I was thinking defense and getting out of the way.

“That’s what Fury is. So for him to be trying to transition and become a sit-down puncher and try and be aggressive. I think it’s fluff. And I don’t think he’s going to do that,” said Bradley about Fury. “I think in spots he will. Right now, I think he’s just trying to sell this right now,” said Bradley.

We don’t know for sure that Fury is going to come into the fight at 270, but if he does, then it won’t be good.

It would have been better for Fury to come into the rematch with Wilder around the same weight as he did for the first fight. Fury was 256 for the fight, and he fought well.

Can Fury still take a shot?

“His technique is terrible, but his IQ is there,” said Bradley on Wilder. “Once he builds up that right hand, it’s goodnight. If I could go back. I would give away all my skills if I had a right hand like Deontay Wilder because I’m going to find a way to land it at the end of the night. Deontay Wilder hasn’t received any damage.

“I’m taking that all day. Give me that power. If Tyson can stay on his feet when he does get hit, but we don’t know how he’s going to react when he gets punched. He could be [stll] affected by the right hand. I was affected after I fought Provodnikov.

“I couldn’t take a shot like I used to. A jab was starting to hurt me. So he [Fury] could still be affected by that,” said Bradley about Fury’s 12th round knockdown against Wilder in their first fight.

Top Rank didn’t want to put Fury right back in with Wilder after their first fight, and some believe they wanted him to have more time to recover. The knockout that Fury suffered in the 12th at the hands of Wilder was devastating. It’s great that Fury was able to get up from the knockdown, but that doesn’t negate the fact that he was knocked unconscious by Wilder.

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