By Dan Berman: Tyson Fury doesn’t want to use the same game plan that partially worked for him the last time he fought WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in 2018. Fury has zero interest using his superior boxing ability to try and win a 12 round decision over Wilder (42-0-1, 41 KOs) in their rematch on February 22.
Fury mistrustful after his bad experience in first Wilder fight
He notes that it didn’t work for him the last time he fought Wilder, as their fight was scored a 12 round draw. Although Fury believes he clearly won, the judges saw the fight as knotted at the end. For that reason, Fury is reluctant to go back to that same strategy. The 6’9′ Fury is jaded, mistrustful, and not confident enough that he’ll get the decision this time for him to go back to the original game plan.
The judges likely were infuenced by Wilder knocking Fury down twice in the fight. Without those knockdowns, Fury would have won easily, but he couldn’t stay on his feet down the home stretch of the fight.
Fury explains why he wants to knockout Wilder
“I’ve got three more fights left on this ESPN contract, and we’ll see where we go with that,” said Fury to Boxing Social. “I’m 31 coming to the end of my career. I’m not 22 anymore, and I’ve got nothing to prove. Whatever happens in the Wilder fight, I’m happy. I’ve achieved everything that I’ve ever wanted to achieve, and I’ve made plenty of money,” said Fury.
“It’s a new thing. I like new challenges. It gives me something to get me teeth into,” said Fury when asked about his prediction of wanting to knockout Wilder. “I’m working in the gym, putting my punches together more, and coming forward landing bigger shots.
“I brought Sugarhill in to work on my right hand, because I seem to be moving along, throwing jabs and using feints and not throwing enough right hands. So I brought someone in that specializes in that right hand. So we’re open to throwing it in the fight at any time. Hopefully I’ll stay injury free and land it on Wilder,” said Fury.
The fight-hand power that Fury showed in his fights with Otto Wallin, Tom Schwarz and Wilder was nothing special. Sugarhill is a good coach, but he’s not going to be able to develop Fury’s power out of thin air. In other words, Sugarhill isn’t a magician.
Unfortunately, Fury is plagued with the same problem that his cousin Hughie Fury has in the fact that he can’t punch. We’ve heard Hughie’s coaches talk about wanting to develop his power for years now, and yet ye still can’t punch.
No interest in trying to out-box Wilder says Fury
“Why do the same thing?” said Fury when asked about why he’s not thinking of out-boxing Wilder. “Did it work last time? Fans, what people think is one thing, and what I think is one thing. But the official decision is what counts, doesn’t it? So I think losing and drawing is the same thing. I class that as a loss, and Deontay Wilder should too.
“I’m not someone that is happy to lose on points,” said Fury. ‘You put up a good fight, you know? I lost in a great fight.’ I don’t do that. I’m here to win or nothing, and people say it a lot and do mean it. I’d rather be carried out of the ring losing, trying to win than settle to lose on points. That’s what separates me from the rest, and makes me a different breed.
“People talk a good game. They think what they’d do if they had a massive cut on the face,” said Fury. “‘I’d keep fighting.’ You never experienced it. They think what they’d do if they were on the floor, spark out on the floor, getting back up and fight on.
“They’ve never experienced it, so they don’t know,” said Fury about fans never having been hurt before. “My heart says, ‘Win or nothing. I don’t do second place.’ So if I get carried out of that ring, fair play, because I’ll know that I’ve done my best to knock him out,” said Fury.
Punchers are born not made. If everyone could punch like Wilder, the heavyweight division would be loaded with KO artists. That’s not reality. Fury is a “feather-fisted” fighter, as Wilder calls him, and that’s not going to change for the rematch.
Fury sees no need for undisputed heavyweight championship
“The undisputed heavyweight champion can f— off,” said Fury. “It doesn’t mean nothing. There’s a lot of talk about it, because a lot of promoters talk about it, but what does it really mean undisputed heavyweight champion? I don’t know what it means? What does it mean? I‘m already the main man. There’s always going to be But’s or Maybe’s.
“And there’s never going to be the main man, ever,” Fury said. “There’s never going to be concrete, ‘He’s the main man,’ because there will always be someone’s opinion. ‘No, it’s that, this or the other. Undisputed champion. What does that really mean? Not much to be fair these days. When I beat Klitschko, he was considered the main man. Was he or was he not?
“There was no if’s, but’s or maybe’s, was there? So when I beat that man, what did I become?” Fury asked. “Say no more. So to do it again, it’s already done. I already did that, and I’m the only active heavyweight today that can say that I’ve been the main man in the division by beating the top guy. The rest of them ain’t. So when you understand boxing like me, it takes it to a whole nother level,” Fury said.
Fury is the only one that believes himself to be the main man in the division. Most boxing fans believe Wilder or Anthony Joshua are the best fighters in the division. Fury’s win over and old and shot 40-ish Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 is meaningless, and has no bearing on this era.
Wladimir was over-the-hill when Fury beat him, and that victory is long ago that it’s entirely irrelevant.
Tyson considers himself the BEST heavyweight from win over Wladimir
“Wilder fresh champion in Bermane Stiverne, who was making his defense of the belt,” said Fury. “Not really that good. [Anthony] Joshua beat Charles Martin, a guy that won a title [IBF] on a default. He probably should have never been a world champion, a guy that was a world champion because the IBF stripped me after 4 days of the belt, and give it to somebody else.
“So that’s how he became a world champion,” said Fury on Joshua. “I became a world champion after beating a guy [Wladmir Klitschko] that had 26 world title defenses, and unbeaten in 11 years in his own country [Germany] in his own backyard.
“So that means I’m the man to beat, and none of these guys in my era can ever be considered or even looked at as the man until they beat me, and that ain’t easy to do, as I proved in the past,” said Fury. “It’s not an easy task. So yeah, as far as I see it and as far as it goes, I’m the man in the division to beat.
“No matter how many belts they hold, no matter how many wins they have, they’ll never be considered the best in this era until they beat the Gypy King for now,” said Fury.
Fury is talking about stone age stuff, and trying to pump himself up as the #1 heavyweight, and he’s the only one that believes it.