Promoter Frank Warren believes WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury will beat IBF/WBA/WBO champ Oleksandr Usyk at his own game on May 18th by using his IQ to defeat him in their undisputed clash in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Fury’s Style Shift? Or Just Sloppy Boxing?
Warren feels that Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) has changed his style of fighting since the second fight against Deontay Wilder in 2020, fighting more on the front foot, and not boxing like he’d done earlier in his career when he upset Wladimir Klitschko in 2015.
In the second Wilder fight, Fury used a lot of leaning and rabbit punches. Those things helped lead him to a knockout victory more than any improvement in Fury’s punching power or ability to slug.
We can only judge the 35-year-old Fury on his last performance, and he looked pretty poor, winning a controversial 10-round split decision over Francis Ngannou. I had Fury losing that fight 7-3 and saw it as a robbery just as many fans did.
That might be who Fury is at this point because we can’t say his victories over British fighters Dereck Chisora and Dillian Whyte say anything about him because neither of them are world-class. They’re old journeymen.
Usyk: The True Heavyweight King
All we can say is Fury deserved a loss against a novice, Ngannou, and is now going up against arguably the #1 fighter in the heavyweight division. I know Fury’s fans don’t like to hear that, but it’s the reality. Usyk has more titles at heavyweight than Fury at the present time, and he has better wins with his two victories over Anthony Joshua.
Fury’s best career win came against an old and shot 40-year-old Wladimir Klitschko, and that was a razor-close victory. No one believes Fury would have beaten a prime Wladimir. He’s not that type of talent.
“He’s taking a few by the way, he’s had to get off the floor a few times, but he’s changed his style quite a bit. He’s shown what a puncher he is,” said Warren to Sky Sports Boxing about Tyson Fury.
“This thing about ‘he’s not a big puncher’. Go and look at how many stoppages there are on his record. You only get stopped if you can’t take any more. That’s what he does.”
For Fury’s sake, I hope he’s not counting on trying to knock out Usyk because he’s going to put himself in a position to get countered all night and look worse than he did against Ngannou.
Also, it would be a good idea for Fury to forget about using his leaning tactics to try and wear Usyk out because that’s not going to work. Usyk moves too well for him to fall victim to the old leaning bit by Fury.
“I think that’s what’s going to happen to Usyk. He’ll do him at his own game. Because he’s very, very smart.”