Eddie Hearn sees a case where Tyson Fury could see his two-year reign as the #1 heavyweight on the planet upended this Saturday night when he defends his WBC strap against Dillian Whyte at the Wembley Stadium in London, England. This could be it for Fury with his 15-minutes of fame about to end.
Hearn says Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) has legitimate one-punch power in either hand, and if he catches the sloppy Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) with one of his big shots, he could knock him cold.
To be sure, it’s not as if the 33-year-old Fury is hard to hit at this stage in his career. In the old days, it was nearly impossible to hit the fast-footed 6’9″ Fury cleanly with shots.
All you have to look at how tough a time former unified heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko had trying to land cleanly against Fury in their fight in 2015 to know how exceptional he was on the defensive side of his game.
Sadly, that version of Fury is long gone with age, weight gain and the change of fighting style taught to him by his Kronk Gym-trained American coach Sugarhill Steward.
“He [Dillian] has the ability to take you out with one shot, he’s technically better than people think, he’s incredibly fit, incredibly durable and he has a big set of balls,” Eddie Hearn said in praising Whyte to iFL TV.
If Whyte fights as he did in his rematch with Alexander Povetkin last year in March, he’s going to have Fury flying all around the ring with each jarring shot he lands in the fight.
Whyte’s power & engine was exceptional in his fourth-round knockout victory over Povetkin last year. Every shot Dillian threw in that fight had Deontay Wilder-level power, and his stamina was out of this world good.
If Fury gets hurt against Whyte on Saturday night, he’s not going to have a ghost of a chance of recovering because Dillian isn’t going to gas out as we saw with Deontay last October.
Fury was there to be taken in his trilogy match against the former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder, but the Bronze Bomber’s gas tank was too poor for him to finish the job.
“If he switches off for one moment, Dillian Whyte is a fantastic body puncher and has a fantastic left hook that can take you out with one shot,” Hearn continued. “Dillian can win this fight. He’s an underdog in this fight.
“Dillian Whyte can win this fight if he gets it right or if they trade up, and they will trade up, trust me. You could see a knockout like Whyte-Chisora. If Tyson Fury gets buttoned by Dillian Whyte’s left hook, it’s over,” said Hearn.
If Fury gets dropped hard by Whyte and given the benefit of the doubt by the referee, it won’t matter if he gets back up. Whyte will be like a killer shark against a hurt Fury, and will rip him to pieces after he climbs up off the canvas.
