By Jim Calfa: Lennox Lewis expects Dillin Whyte to be taking the fight to the 6’9″ WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, putting pressure on him looking to score a knockout in the early rounds on Saturday night at Wembley Stadium in London, England.
Lewis sees Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) having problems getting to Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) due to his size, and he feels it’s going to be a puzzle that ‘The Body Snatcher’ will need to solve early on.
Lennox feels that a fight between Fury and Oleksandr Usyk would be the bigger one than Tyson vs. Anthony Joshua.
Many boxing fans would disagree with Lewis on that because the fight they want to see is Joshua vs. Fury, as that’s the one that people have talked about since AJ turned pro in 2013.
“I think the fight may go the distance. I think it’ll be back & forth. Tyson Fury can do anything he wants. He can box on the outside, or he can box on the inside,” said Lennox Lewis to Boxing Social in previewing Saturday’s fight between Tyson Fury and Dillian Whyte.
It will be next to impossible for Whyte to land a big enough shot to knock Fury down and keep him on the canvas. His ability to take big punches is out of this world, as are his recovery powers.
Even if Whyte does drop Fury, he’s likely to keep getting up as he did in his three fights with Deontay Wilder.
Wilder dropped Fury four times in those fights, yet he got up each time and did an excellent job of coming back to dominate the battle.
“I don’t know what he’s going to do; it’s really up to him,” Lewis continued about Fury. “When a man can box southpaw or orthodox, you don’t know what he’s going to do.
“I’ve seen him [Whyte] get knocked out by [Alexander] Povetkin, realize the mistake, come back and knock out Povetkin,” Lewis said about Dillian. “That to me, he’s climbing stairs. He’s at the top of the stairs right now.
“This is where everything he’s learned has to come out. This is the most important fight of his whole career, and I look at him as being very serious. He looks very focused on this.
“In the first couple of rounds, they’re going to get used to each other,” Lewis said of Fury & Whyte. “Tyson Fury is going to be elusive and keep his head moving.
“Dillian Whyte is going to be coming at him, trying to hit him, trying to knock him out, but it’s not going to be easy because you’ve got a 6’9” guy that you have to get used to.
“Sparring for a 6’9” guy is really difficult, so I don’t know who he’s been sparring with.
“Definitely Tyson Fury; he’s the man at the top,” said Lewis in picking Fury to win.
