Like the rest of us, former WBC cruiserweight champ Tony Bellew will be a very interested spectator when Tyson Fury fights Dillian Whyte. The April 23rd clash could be a great action fight; with Fury already saying he will go right at Whyte, “meet him in the centre of the ring, push him back and detonate some dynamite on his chin.”
Fury said he would adopt these same tactics in his two rematches with Deontay Wilder, and he was as good as his word. There is then, no reason to doubt Fury this time. But Bellew feels Fury will have a tough time of things with Whyte, as he explained when speaking with Talk Sport. Bellew thinks Fury will get knocked down at some point in the fight, and that the defending WBC heavyweight champ could even get knocked out.
“Tyson Fury’s the best heavyweight in the world right now, that cannot be disputed,” Bellew said. “But Dillian Whyte is a hard night for anybody. Anybody who thinks Dillian Whyte is going to be an easy fight is a fool – he’s big, he’s dangerous, he’s brave and he can punch. And Tyson knows it too, he’s no fool, but with Tyson’s boxing ability, if he navigates his way through the first six, I expect him to come on strong in the second half of the fight. But, believe you me, I actually think he’s going to have to get off the floor. Dillian Whyte is game as anything and he will jump all over Tyson Fury.”
Whyte as we know has been training hard, with zero distractions (not even those of attending a press conference) and he has been waiting for this moment for months, if not years. Bellew is right when he says Whyte is dangerous. Also, we don’t know what, if anything, that third brutal war with Wilder took out of Fury. Downed heavily two times in a torrid fourth round, Fury’s chin was severely tested. If Fury has lost anything in the punch resistance department, who knows, maybe he will find himself on the floor if Whyte connects flush the way Wilder did.
On the other hand, how good is Whyte’s chin? KO’d by Alexander Povetkin and decked by Joseph Parker (Whyte was also stopped by Anthony Joshua, this some time ago now), Whyte may well have to scrape himself off the canvas himself. The Fury-Whyte fight has that feel about it: that it will be special, action-packed, memorable.
What price both champ and challenger hit the deck in this one? A huge sell-out at Wembley Stadium, with possibly upwards of 100,000 fans in attendance, Fury’s fight with Whyte might even be Fury’s swansong. Just five weeks away, this fight could be a real thriller.
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