Eddie Hearn double-downed on his recent comments about Tyson Fury lacking the punching power to KO Dillian Whyte by going into an exhaustive list of his past fights where he’s showed a lack of pop in his punches to stop less than stellar opposition.
Hearn maintains that if anyone is going to be scoring a knockout on April 23rd in the Fury-Whyte contest, it’s going to be the heavy-handed Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs), courtesy of one of his sledgehammer left hooks to the lantern jaw of the 6’9″ stork-like Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs).
Some boxing fans would argue that Fury, 33, will be in need of a knockout of Whyte to ensure a victory on April 23rd in their fight at Wembley Stadium in London, England.
Whyte has an EXCELLENT chance of beating Fury
If Whyte doesn’t run out of gas after four rounds the way that Deontay Wilder did last October, Fury will be a goner for sure. Fury was badly hurt in the fourth, and ready to be stopped by Wilder in the fifth if he had any semblance of a gas tank.
Whyte has power close enough to Wilder to deposit Fury on the canvas, but where he’s vastly more superior to the Bronze Bomber is in the chin and stamina department.
Unlike Wilder, Whyte won’t gas out in the early rounds against Fury, and he’ll be able to take his clubbing punches much better.
As long as Fury isn’t getting away with murder as far as throwing rabbit shots all night long as he did in his rematch with the 6’7″ Deontay in 2020, Whyte has got a heck of a chance of beating him on April 23rd.
Hearn talks about Fury’s lack of power
“If you look at Tyson Fury’s career, he’s never been a renowned puncher. He stopped Deontay Wilder, fantastic; it was a great performance. Wilder hasn’t got the best chin, and it wasn’t even the power [of Fury]. He just overwhelmed him, and he ran out of gas,” said Eddie Hearn to Behind The Gloves in reacting to being told that fans are critical of his recent comments about Fury lacking the power to stop Dillian Whyte.
Hearn is 100% correct on how Fury stopped Deontay Wilder in their trilogy match last October. It wasn’t because Fury is a tremendous puncher or anything close to that. The reason why Fury stopped Deontay is because of these factors:
- Deontay’s power stamina
- Fury overwhelmed him with punches
- Wilder’s decision to fight off the ropes
- Deontay’s weak punch resistance
“Tyson Fury, speak to anyone; he’s never been renowned as a puncher in the heavyweight division,” Hearn continued. “He’s a tremendous fighter, he’s very smart, and he can punch a bit.
“What I’m saying is I don’t believe he’s an out-and-out puncher. If you look at his performances, he’s never been a one-punch knockout artist ever,” Hearn said in speaking the obvious about Fury.
“Everybody carries power in that division, but what I said was, I don’t feel that Fury has the power to take Dillian Whyte out. Certainly not with one punch, and I believe Dillian Whyte has the power to take Tyson Fury out with one left hook, but it’s only my opinion.
“But Tyson Fury has never been a puncher; go back to all of his fights. The [Dereck] Chisora fight, the [Christian] Hammer fights, and even the [Steve] Cunningham fights, he stopped him late and sort of overwhelmed him.
“He’s never been, even when he was fighting [Tom] Schwarz; it was a nothing stoppage. Otto Wallin, he [Fury] couldn’t get him out of there. Sefer Seferi, [Francesco] Pianeta, he’s not cleaning people out, is what I’m saying. It’s only my opinion,” Hearn continued on his oral dissertation on Fury’s lack of power.
It’s obvious that Fury has NEVER been a puncher during his career, and he never will be. When Fury has scored knockouts in the past, it’s happened because of him landing an accumulation of blows against a mediocre heavyweight.
If Wilder had a strong chin and excellent endurance, he surely would have stopped Fury in their match last October because he was lighting the Gypsy King up with shots in that fight before gassing out after the fourth.
Fury blew his chance to fight Usyk
“Fair play to them; they said they didn’t want to fight Usyk,” said Hearn. “That’s fair. That’s fine. We confirmed that Tyson Fury didn’t want to fight Usyk next. He wanted a warm-up fight before that. That’s all I said.
“He could have easily have waited for that fight [with Usyk]. We’re talking about two months, but he didn’t. He actually felt that he was too inactive to go into an Usyk fight, even though he’s come off the Wilder [fight on October 9th].
“He has been inactive, everyone’s been inactive, but AJ has boxed once a year for the last three years because of the pandemic.
“Everyone has been inactive, but he [Fury] just felt that he needed another fight BEFORE he fought Usyk, and that’s all.
“It was like I was just telling people why, and then AJ all of a sudden say, ‘Hang on, I don’t mind him fighting Usyk, and I’ll fight the winner, but I’m not letting him fight on March 26th, then in May and then I get the fight in December because anything can happen.’
“Anyway, it’s yesterday’s news now, it’s irrelevant, and I wish everyone all the best,” said Hearn.