Tyson Fury’s dad, John Fury, thinks that he needs to adapt his fighting style for his February 17th undisputed heavyweight championship clash against Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia.
John says the style that Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) used to defeat Deontay Wilder and other fighters won’t work because IBF/WBA/WBO champion Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs) is too quick-footed and skilled.
Mobility Concerns
Fury has used what some call ‘The Kronk’ style since teaming up with American coach SugarHill Steward. In reality, Fury is using simple mauling, and that’s not the Kronk Gym style.
The 35-year-old Fury is too old and heavy at this stage of his career to return to the fleet-footed style he had when he fought a washed 40-year-old Wladimir Klitschko.
If Fury could become mobile like he was back then, he would have done it already, but he hasn’t. One reason is that he messed up his body by ballooning to close to 400 lbs after his upset win over Wladimir. When a person puts that kind of weight on, they’re never the same after they take it off.
You can’t lose that kind of weight and be the athlete you once were. Fury lost his mobility from that point on.
A History of Weak Opposition
The only reason he was able to win still is because he was matched against poor opoisition. Judge for yourself. These are the guys Fury has fought since 2015:
– Sefer Seferi
– Francesco Pianeta
– Tom Schwarz
– Deontay Wilder
– Otto Wallin
– Dereck Chisora
– Dillian Whyte
– Francis Ngannou
These are weak heavyweights, so Fury beat them with his plodding, mauling, non-mobile style of fighting. If Fury had fought good heavyweights in the last eight years, he would have been beaten around the clock and run out of the sport.
Adaptability or Downfall
“He needs a different style altogether with Usyk; he’s totally different,” said John Fury to Boxing Social, talking about how Tyson Fury needs to change his mauling fighting style for his fight against Oleksandr Usyk on February 17th.
“Gerry Cooney is six-foot-seven, eighteen stone; look what happened,” said John, talking about how a past his best Cooney was beaten by the smaller former light heavyweight champion Michael Spinks.
“These are speed-men; you just can’t have that straight-up, going forward, looking to land a bomb on this kind of fighter because guess what? They can see it coming, and they will avoid it,” said John.
A lot has been made of Fury’s win over Wladimir, but the reality is, he would have lost to even this version of him if the Ukrainian had let his hands go.
A younger version of Wladimir would have made easy work of Fury, and the huge fuss would never have been made about him.
“Usyk is very good; he is a good mover, he’s got a brain, he’s got good footwork, and the style for Deontay Wilder and Francis Ngannou isn’t going to cut it for a man like Usyk,” said John.
Fury has shown that he is capable of out-boxing masterminds in the past, most notably in his win over Wladimir Klitschko in 2015, but it remains to be seen if he is still capable.
