Tyson Fury: Finally Fit-ish, But Does it Matter?

Image: Tyson Fury: Finally Fit-ish, But Does it Matter?
By Daniel Mcglinchey - 05/10/2024 - Comments

Social media fans are praising Tyson Fury’s physical conditioning for his fight against Oleksandr Usyk on May 18th.

It’s great that Fury is finally taking his training seriously after nearly a decade of being chunky, but he still has his work cut out for him against the talented unified heavyweight champion Usyk on May 18th.

Trading Blubber for Boxing Skills?

For the first time in perhaps nine years, WBC heavyweight champion Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) has trimmed off the weight that he’d been carrying around, and he now resembles an athlete.

Unfortunately, Fury has spent the better part of his training camp focusing on losing weight, and that has to have taken away from working on actual boxing to prepare for IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs).

Father Time is Undefeated

Fury taking all that weight off won’t turn back the clock on the years, wear and tear, losses of reflexes that come with aging, and the punishment he took in his fights against Deontay Wilder. Losing 30-40 lbs of fat won’t make Fury young again.

The mobility and reflexes won’t be there for Fury because he’s still 35 and not young, and of course, his rudimentary boxing skills won’t suddenly be on the level of Usyk because of the weight loss.

Regardless of the weight loss, Fury is still a fighter that is heading towards 40, and that ain’t going to change with him trimming off all that weight. The thing, even the best version of Fury from 2015, the one that beat Wladimir Klitschko, would have problems against Usyk.

This is more than just weight. Usyk is a guy who was developed from the Eastern European school, worked hard and is the best of the best. He’s not some big guy who was ccarefully matched by his handlers his entire career to get him to this point, which is what fans believe Fury is all about.

The Mauler’s One Trick

Fury is still basically a mauler, who looks to grab, lean and wrestle his opponents to tire them out. That’s basically Fury’s only way of winning fights at this late stage in his career, and it’s so one-dimensional. There’s nothing for Usyk to figure out.

Usyk and Fury will be meeting on May 18th for the undisputed heavyweight championship in a PPV event at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The winner could potentially fight Anthony Joshua next if His Excellency chooses to interrupt the rematch clause Fury and Usyk have in their country to give the winner the fight the boxing public wants to see.