By Charles Brun: Former heavyweight champion George Foreman is picking WBC champ Tyson Fury to come out victorious tonight against Dillian Whyte. Foreman sees Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) as the more athletic, better-skilled fighter than the 34-year-old Whyte.
The one doubt that Foreman has about Fury is the way he’s been talking of retiring after tonight’s fight.
With Fury planning on retiring after the fight, he may not have the motivation needed to pull him through a grueling war with ‘The Body Snatcher.’
Fury, 33, has done a lot of bragging about himself in the past eight weeks, patting himself on the back for promoting the fight, believing he’s beaten all comers.
The reality is, Fury’s resume is weak, consisting of a victory over a faded 39-year-old Wladimir Klitschko in 2015, and two wins over the badly flawed Deontay Wilder. In one of those wins, Fury appeared to be knocked out, and surprisingly the referee gave him a count.
You can argue that the fight should have been stopped on the spot and likely would have in most cases. When a fighter is knocked cold, as Fury was in the 12th round by Wilder in 2018, the fight is stopped on the spot.
“Tyson Fury is in that place where he has conquered everything, so it’s hard to stay motivated,” Foreman said to FanSided.
Fury has NOT “conquered everything,” as Foreman says. He still hasn’t beaten these fighters:
- Anthony Joshua
- Filip Hrgovic
- Oleksandr Usyk
- Frank Sanchez
- Joe Joyce
- Daniel Dubois
Those guys are arguably better fighters than the fighters Fury has beaten in the last seven years.
Fury’s best wins:
- Wladimir Klitschko – 39-years-old
- Deontay Wilder
- Otto Wallin
- Derek Chisora – gatekeeper
- Steve Cunningham
If you know anything about boxing, you’ll realize that Fury’s resume is a poor one because his only victory of substance is against an over-the-hill Klitschko. The rest of Fury’s victories came against lesser guys.
Yeah, Deontay held the WBC title for five years, but he never beat anyone noteworthy in all those years. Wilder’s best wins came against an old Bermane Stiverne and journeyman Chris Arreola. The rest of the guys Deontay beat were throwaways.
“The biggest question mark going into Saturday will be if Fury was as dedicated as he was for the last three Deontay Wilder fights. I think it’s a great heavyweight matchup,” Foreman continued.
“That is the worst thing in the world: getting in the ring and not knowing why you are there, but he has the ability, size, and strength to win it all with no problem.
I see [Tyson] winning this one because he has more ability than the other guy [Whyte]” said Foreman.
