Tyson Fury wins Espys 2021 Best Boxer of the year award

By Boxing News - 07/14/2021 - Comments

By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury has been voted as ESPN’s 2021 Boxer of the Year award without throwing a punch this year. He took to social media earlier on Wednesday to thank the people that voted to give him this prestigious award.

It’s too bad Fury didn’t use his time thanking the voters to try and explain what’s happening with his COVID-19. Boxing fans want to get an update from Fury and whether he’ll be healthy enough to face Deontay Wilder on October 9th.

If not, the World Boxing Council needs to make him ‘Champion in Recess‘ and elevate WBC interim champion Dillian WhyteΒ to the title-holder. If Fury can’t defend his title due to illness, the next fighter to take his spot is Whyte.

Winning an award for 2021 without actually fighting is pretty impressive for the WBC heavyweight champion Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs). We’ll see what happens in 2022 if he doesn’t fight this year. Does Fury get another award?

For a person that is sick with COVID-19, Fury looked in excellent health, showing signs of a cough, difficulty breathing, or weight loss.

Indeed, Fury is seemingly in great shape for a person ill with this sometimes lethal flu.

Teddy Atlas choosing Wilder to beat Fury

“I’m picking a different guy now. I was picking Fury with eyes closed,” said Atlas on The Fight Game with Teddy Atlas. “He’s [Fury] too dimensional, he’s mentally tougher, he’s coming off a win, he broke him down.

“The other guy [Wilder] doesn’t know; he didn’t have a fight in between to know if he’s going to be OK that he can handle this.

Image: Tyson Fury wins Espys 2021 Best Boxer of the year award

“He’s had nothing to show that he can exercise these ghosts that were put in his head by Fury. Fury has shown that he can walk you down, he can box with you, he can do either one.

“He broke this guy [Wilder] down to the point where he was making excuses all over the place. I had too many M&Ms before the fight; I had a bad frankfurter.

“And I mean, it went on and on and on until the point where it wasn’t good.Β  It was a little embarrassing, and then he [Wilder] fires his trainer [Mark Breland],” said Atlas.

It’s more than just the question of Fury’s health now. There’s also the fact he doesn’t look as muscular as he was last time, and he doesn’t seem as hungry.

The way Fury’s life has changed with him becoming a multi-millionaire in the last couple of years has done something to him mentally. The Gypsy King Fury is so wealthy now, and he’s poised to make $100 million against Anthony Joshua when they fight in early 2022.

If you put all that together, it’s caused Fury to lose interest in training hard, which might explain why he was rumored to have been beaten up by his sparring partner Jared Anderson while training for the now postponed July 24th fight.

Deontay’s power erases his mistakes

“I give Wilder credit, for one thing, he demanded this fight,” Atlas continued about Deontay pushing for his trilogy with Fury. “He had the rematch clause, he went to a judge, and he got the fight.

“He could have gotten a step aside fee and waited, but no, he wanted the fight. With that said, I was picking Fury because he can do more things, and he fights better.

Image: Tyson Fury wins Espys 2021 Best Boxer of the year award

“He doesn’t punch better, but he fights better than Wilder. Wilder falls all over the place, drops his hands, doesn’t know how to get away from punches too well, and gets out of position.

“But he can punch like a son of a gun with that right hand. He’s got the hammer of Thor in that right hand, and it erases a lot of mistakes, and it has, and it almost did the first time [against Fury in 2018],” said Atlas.

If Wilder struggles against Fury like he did the last time, he’s got that right hand that could bail him out. Last time, Wilder had an injured right bicep, and he really couldn’t do much.

From the way Wilder used his right arm, you could tell that he wasn’t at 100% for that fight. What complicates matters further for Wilder was getting brained with a vicious rabbit shot in the third by Fury.

Wilder fought like he was on a pair of rollerskates for the first time from that point on. His legs weren’t under him, and he looked terrible. Fury took full advantage of Wilder’s condition by training him with hammer fists.

They didn’t look like normal punches that Fury was throwing. From what I could see, Fury’s punches looked like primitive hammer-fists that you see young kids use in fights before they learn how to throw straight punches.

Fury’s COVID illness could hurt him against Wilder

“He dropped Fury twice,” Atlas said about the first Wilder-Fury fight in 2018. “With all that said, I was picking Fury, but now I’m picking Wilder.

“Yeah, I’m picking Wilder right now because he [Fury] had the COVID. It all depends on when they reschedule the fight, really.

YouTube video

“If it’s September, that’s too soon. They’ve got to have enough time to get the virus out of his system and for him to recover and to get a proper training camp too.

“This fight [Fury vs. Wilder III] has taken a turn and a flip and a flop, and with this COVID, if Fury’s people really care about him and I’m sure they do, they better make sure they take enough time [to recover]. We’ll see what happens,” said Atlas.

As good as Fury looks right now, he’d likely have no issues about fighting Wilder in September if that was an option. In fact, Fury looks healthy enough now to fight Wilder in August.

It’s unlikely that Fury will be less than 100% when he defends his WBC title against Wilder in October.

I mean, Fury doesn’t look ill at all right now, which is a good sign that he’ll be ready to face Wilder at full power on October 9th.

You can’t compare Fury to Alexander Povetkin, who was badly sick from COVID-19 in late 2020. Povetkin appeared to come back much too soon from his illness to face Whyte in a rematch last March.