By Charles Brun: Anthony Joshua is already predicting a sixth-round knockout win over WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury well ahead of their scheduled first of two fights in 2021.
IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs) stated in an interview on Wednesday that he has less mileage on the odometer than the 32-year-old Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs), and he feels that’ll b key to him defeating the undefeated WBC champion.
AJ and Fury got some good news last weekend with Alexander Povetkin knocking out Dillian Whyte in their match on promoter Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom HQ property.
The Joshua is talking, he can’t wait to get at Fury to knock him out to claim the top spot in the heavyweight rankings.
Joshua wants to break Fury’s head
The 5th round KO victory for Povetkin removed an impediment to making the Joshua-Fury fight happen in early 2021, as Whyte and the World Boxing Council had been insisting that Fury must defend against him by February or lose the WBC title.
Fury likely would have vacated the WBC belt, which would have put Joshua and Hearn in the position whether they would elect to go in the direction of the title or take the fight that the boxing world wanted to see in facing ‘The Gypsy King.’
“I want to break his head,” Joshua said to the League of Their Own about Fury. “First six rounds, I think, well – I know – I’m going to take him out then.
“I have had a shorter career, so I’m fresher. I’ve been in the deep end longer so I can handle the pressure and I believe I’m going to take him out.”
If Joshua can get to Fury’s chin the way that Deontay did in their first fight, then he’s got an excellent chance of knocking him out. What Joshua has worked for him now is the recent change in Fury’s fighting style.
Can Tyson slug with AJ?
What we saw in the Wilder rematch was that Fury has gone from being a finesse fighter to becoming a brawler, and that victory may have gone to his head. While that game worked for Fury in his rematch with the thin 6’7″ Deontay last February, it may prove to be ineffective against the much more massive 245+ lb Joshua.
If Fury believes he can use the same game plan that he had for the Wilder rematch on Joshua, it could lead to him getting knocked out quickly within six rounds. What worked for Fury against Wilder was his ability to fight at close to medium range.
That might not work against Joshua, who has a mean uppercut that he likes to throw. If Joshua can bounce a couple of big uppercuts off Fury’s chin, we could have him on the deck like he was in his first fight against Wilder.
It’s still too early for Joshua to be predicting an outcome for his first Tyson Fury fight because both guys still need to win their next battles. Joshua must get his IBF mandatory defense out of the way against Kubrat Pulev in December. In contrast, Fury still has his trilogy match against the dangerous former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder that he must win.
Joshua is too unpredictable to count on winning his fight against 39-year-old Pulev. As we saw in AJ’s loss to Andy Ruiz Jr last year, he’s someone that can fall apart at a moment’s notice during a fight.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the first time that Joshua had problems in one of his fights. Whyte had AJ buzzed in the second round of their contest in 2015, and he might have knocked him out if he hadn’t gassed out after that round.
Tyson Fury got lucky against Wilder
If Whyte had a good engine, there’s little chance that Joshua would have survived another round. Joshua was stunned in his fights against the ring-rusty 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko, Carlos Takam, and Povetkin.
Wilder hasn’t been speaking much lately, and Hearn is starting to wonder whether he fancies another fight against Fury. Deontay does plan on facing Fury again, but he’s not going to put himself in the position where he’s looking silly by trash-talking.
Fury had problems with Wilder in their first fight in handling his power, and he had t climb off the canvas twice to salvage a draw. The 12th round knockout that Wilder scored clearly should have been a knockout, but the referee gave Fury a count while he was unconscious.
Fury was hurt even worse than Dillian Whyte was in his 5th round knockout against Povetkin last Saturday. In that fight, the referee stopped it right away. A lot of boxing fans felt the first Fury vs. Wilder fight should have been stopped just as the Whyte-Povetkin contest was.
Welcome to boxing. Fury should have been knocked out. That’s why you can’t assume anything with a third Fury vs. Wilder contest. Unless there’s a referee that is going to give another count to Fury if he gets knocked cold again, Wilder