By Charles Brun: David Haye sees the August 14th heavyweight clash ending badly for Tyson Fury with Anthony Joshua crushing him early with his powerful combination punching.
That style that Joshua uses in throwing sustained combinations is all wrong for Fury.
Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs has done well in the past against fighters that throw big single punches like Wladimir Klitschko and Deontay Wilder, which has allowed him to dodge their shots and come back with clubbing shots at close range.
In IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs), he throws combinations and flurries. So instead of Fury being able to count on dodging a single shot, he’s going to be met with a hail of shots from Joshua.
That’s something that Fury has never had to deal with during his 13-year professional career. Fury’s closest to dealing with a combination puncher was his fight against Otto Wallin in 2019, and he had a boatload of problems against the big 6’6″ Swedish heavyweight.
Haye predicting trouble for Fury
“I think he has a good chance of winning it early,” Haye told the Belfast Telegraph. “I loved his fight against Wladimir Klitschko – he took his licks and got back up and showed the heart of a champion.
“AJ throws hard, compact punches, and he puts them together well,” Haye continued. “I don’t see this fight going smoothly for Fury at all. I really see it being won by stoppage.
Fury arguably should have been stopped in his fight with Wallin due to a cut big enough to drive a truck through it in the third. The important thing to remember about that fight was how Fury had massive problems dealing with constant shots that Wallin was throwing at him.
Wallin had no power to speak of, yet he made Fury miserable just by putting his shots together and exposing him as being incapable of dealing with a combination puncher.
If a guy as limited as Wallin could do what he did to Fury with his weak combinations, imagine what Joshua will do to him.
Fury’s weak power is about the same as Wallin’s, which meant he had no way of taking him out. You can argue that if Wallin had been the one that suffered the cut, the fight would have been stopped on the spot.
That highlights the importance of being a popular A-side fighter like Fury.
Haye predicting trouble for Fury
“Tyson isn’t so much of a one-punch specialist,” said Haye. “He puts his punches together, and his style is that if you throw big looping shots at him, he’ll make you look silly.”
Obviously, Fury should have been knocked out in the 12th round in his first fight with Wilder in 2018.
Fury is excellent at dodging fighters that load up on single power shots the way Wladimir and Deontay typically did/do. What’s surprising is that neither guy made adjustments to their games after watching Fury’s previous fights.
All would have taken for Wladimir and Wilder to beat Fury would be them to throw six to ten punch flurries each time, and they would have given him fits.
For them to do that, they would have had to shorten up their punches and focus on speed rather than loading up on long single shots thrown from a mile away.
Against both of those heavyweights, Fury took advantage of Klitschko and Wilder throwing and missing. Instead of those guys reloading at close range and throwing repeated punches, they let Fury counter and hold.
Again, it was surprising that Wladimir and Wilder didn’t train for Fury’s style because it was so obvious what they needed to do for them to beat him.
Fury’s style only works against heavyweights that don’t have enough sense to realize that they’ve got to throw sustained combinations.
Other than Wladimir and Wilder, Fury has fought pedestrian-level heavyweights like Dereck Chisora, Christian Hammer, Joey Abell, Otto Wallin, Tom Schwarz, and Steve Cunningham largely.
Those guys weren’t good enough to see the flaws in Fury’s game and adjust to it.
“Just because you have the ability to knock someone out doesn’t give you the divine right to do so,” said Haye about the mistakes Joshua made in his first fight against Andy Ruiz Jr in June 2019.