Back when we were all enjoying the quite boisterous fun and games/hype/screaming and shouting in the run-up to the return fight between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder, not too many people took Fury at his word when he said he would come right at Wilder and “knock him out.” But Fury, now a Kronk fighter, was as good as his word.
Now, in speaking with Queensbury Promotions’ YouTube channel, Fury has come out and said that he is a bigger puncher, a harder hitter than Anthony Joshua (the man we all hope Fury will fight in a monster of a showdown next year sometime). As with the Wilder KO prediction, it’s likely many fans will not agree with Fury. Joshua is, of course, recognized as a genuine power-puncher, whereas Fury is more known for his slick moves (amazing for a man so tall and heavy) than he is for his knockout drops.
Or maybe that destruction job Fury did on Wilder has changed your mind?
Fury insists he is a harder puncher than his (hopefully) upcoming rival:
“I’ve never been a stand-still man who lands big shots because I’m a slick boxer,” Fury said. “I’ve just knocked out the heaviest puncher in boxing history. Andy Ruiz is not a big puncher, but he knocked out Anthony Joshua. So I’d say I am a harder puncher than him. There are people who have sparred both of us, and quite a few of them have said it as well. But it’s not about who can punch hardest – it’s about the skill that goes behind it. I am still unbeaten in a 12-year professional career. I’m a force to be reckoned with.”
Fury added how he turned pro young, “just a young boy,” he said, and that he was fighting mature fighters. This is the reason Fury gives for his lack of early KO’s – “If I had turned pro at 25, 26, then I’d have knocked out all the people who went the distance with me when I was a young boy,” Fury stated.
Looking at the records of Fury and Joshua, Fury has 21 KO’s from his 30 wins, while Joshua has 21 KO’s from his 23 wins. So the two are not that far apart in terms of a KO percentage, the edge going to AJ. It’s interesting, though – has Joshua changed his style and approach since suffering that stoppage loss to Ruiz? Is Joshua no longer the destroyer he was earlier in his career? And conversely, is Fury, now a Kronk fighter, a man with a KO on his mind in each fight he has?
Let’s see if Fury looks as powerful and as dangerous in his third fight with Wilder. And let’s see how Joshua approaches his fight with Kubrat Pulev.