Tyson Fury: Anthony Joshua has a confidence issue

By Boxing News - 01/04/2021 - Comments

By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury isn’t showing any worry about Anthony Joshua’s recent comments about wanting to knock him out when the two of them fight this year.

The WBC heavyweight champion Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) believes Joshua lacks the confidence to back-up his tough talk, and he sees what he’s saying as just empty words.

Negotiations are still going on between IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs) and the ‘Gypsy King’ Fury.

Joshua’s Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn and Fury’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank want them to fight twice in 2021, but it’s unknown if they’ll be able to make that happen.

Following Joshua’s impressive ninth-round knockout win over his IBF mandatory Kubrat Pulev last month on December 12th, he warned Fury that he plans on taking his “head off his shoulders” when they meet up.

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Fury doubts Joshua’s courage

“People say a lot of stuff and they don’t back it up, so we’ll see,” said Fury to Fox Miami about Joshua’s knockout quote. “I’ve never seen him take anybody’s head off anybody’s shoulders in all of his 22 fights. Probably a lie. Another lie.

“We’ll see if he’s got the guts to try and do it when I’m stood in the ring in front of him. I don’t believe he has,” said Fury.

Tyson was recently upset after Joshua failed to mention his name after his win over Kubrat Pulev last December. Fury wanted Joshua to call him out, and give him some attention while the spotlight was on him.

Joshua wasn’t going to do that because there was too much uncertainty with Fury’s situation with Deontay Wilder in their contractual rematch that he’s trying to get out of.

It would have made no sense for Joshua to start talking up a fight with Fury before he finds out what’s going to happen with Deontay-Fury.

For Fury’s sake, he’d better hope that Joshua isn’t able to back up his talk because he could be in trouble career-wise if he’s blasted out in consecutive fights in 2021.

You have to question the wisdom of Fury agreeing to fight Joshua twice because it’s a bad match-up for him. Joshua is stronger, faster and he has more experience, both in the professional and the amateur ranks than Fury.

Image: Tyson Fury: Anthony Joshua has a confidence issue

Joshua is not a good as people think – Fury

“I don’t think he’s as good as people crack him up to be, or he doesn’t believe he is, in his own self. He’s got a confidence issue. He’s coming off two shaky performances,” said Fury about Joshua.

AJ dominated both of his last two opponents in Pulev and Andy Ruziz Jr, so it’s unclear what Fury is blabbering about when he says that he’s coming off a couple of “shaky performances.”

Joshua should have won the fight with Pulev by a third-round knockout due to the Bulgarian turning his back to him after getting hurt in round three.

If the referee Deon Dwarte had made the right call, Joshua wins that fight by a third round knockout. Apart from that, Joshua out-boxed Pulev for eight rounds before putting him away in the ninth.

In the rematch with Ruiz Jr in December 2019, Joshua boxed him, and fought well in winning a one-sided 12-round decision.

“On his last two fights, he’s not in form, on mine I am,” said Fury about AJ. “Momentum is with me and I just believe I take him out early, very early. Maybe even one round, two rounds.”

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Fury’s last performance against Wilder was so-so. If you take away all the rabbit punches Fury threw, he didn’t look that great.

You can argue that Fury should have been penalized repeatedly for the punches to the back of Wilder’s head that he was hitting him with. It was troubling to watch the repeated fouls and the fact that the referee was missing in action.

In Fury’s fight before that, he brawled with Swedish heavyweight in winning a grueling 12 round decision.

Fury didn’t look impressive at all, and he got lucky that the ringside doctor didn’t halt the fight because of the terrible cut that he’d suffered in the second round.

Peter Fury impressed with Joshua’s last performance

“He went over to America and he done what he done to Wilder. He had the first fight, and that was a little bit here and there, and then he regrouped and done what he had to do, so yeah,” said Peter Fury to IFL TV in talking about Tyson Fury and his rematch with Deontay. “You’ve got to give credit where it’s due, haven’t you?

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“Yeah, he had a good fight as well. Joshua is improving, hasn’t he? I’ve seen improvements in that fight he had with [Kubrat] Pulev, you know? He was very calm and patient and took his time.

“When I watched it back on TV when I got back. When you’re looking at it there and then and watching it real-time, it’s another story. But when you get back and see it on television, you’ve got more time to sit back and have a look at it.

“I thought he [Anthony Joshua] done well. It was a controlled performance. He didn’t take many risks, so he’s getting clever as time goes on. So it was a good win for him,” said Peter Fury.

Wilder trilogy could be next for Fury

Fury may need to fight former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder next, as the two are still going through a mediation process. While Fury did a good job of beating Wilder in their rematch last year in February, that doesn’t mean he’ll beat him again.

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Wilder was injured for that fight with his right bicep, not 100%, and Fury surprised him by coming out throwing repeated rabbit punches to the back of his head. After being badly hurt by a rabbit punch from Fury in the third, Wilder never recovered.

You can bet if the two fight in the first half of 2021, Wilder will be ready. If Fury comes out firing rabbit shots nonstop, it’s safe to assume that we may see Wilder respond in kind. Hopefully, there’s a referee that controls the fight because it’ll look bad if it’s just pure fouling.

The only two names that jump out when you look at Fury’s resume are past his best Wladimir Klitschko and Deontay Wilder. Fury was arguably knocked out in the 12th round by Wilder in their first fight in 2018.

That was the odd one in which Fury was knocked cold by Wilder, and the referee stood and gave a count while Fury was prone with both eyes closed. It was a very, very odd sight.