In an unlikely scenario, former heavyweight unified world champion Tyson Fury says he’s going to knockout WBC champion Deontay Wilder and rip his World Boxing Council heavyweight strap from him on Saturday night in their long awaited fight on Showtime pay-per-view at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
With the way Fury beat Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 by hitting him with hammer fists in the back of the head at close range, it’s feasible that he could knockout Wilder if he’s permitted to fight the same kind of match by the referee. Jack Reiss will be working as the referee, and he’s a no nonsense type that will likely not put up with Fury breaking the rules on Saturday night to gain an edge against Wilder. But if it happens suddenly with Fury nailing Wilder with a shot that puts him down, it’s possible the referee may choose to look the other way and not call the foul if the crowd is roaring with applause. The last thing a referee like Reiss s going to want to do is waive off a rabbit punch knockdown of Wilder. In the best possible world, Fury (27-0, 19 KOs) will keep it clean and not foul to his heart’s content, but unfortunately all we have to go on is his performance against Klitschko in terms of him facing a talented fighter. Fury was more than willing to bend the rules again and again in the Klitschko fight. You can’t count Fury’s last two fights in predicting what he’ll do against Wilder, as he was facing poor opposition in Francesco Pianeta and Sefer Seferi. Those guys were no threat to Fury, so he kept it clean against them.
“I hope the boxing fans around the world are going to enjoy this as much as I will,” Fury said to ESPN.com. “On Saturday night, I’m going to finally get my chance to punch him in the face. Deontay Wilder is getting knocked out. Make no mistake, I can box for 12 hours on my toes. At some point he’s going to rip me and I’m going to rip him. At some point we’re going to have to stand, and when that point comes, I’m very confident that I can withstand his power and knock him out,” Fury said in talking up his chances of beating Wilder.
It’s going to be interesting if Fury does stand his ground and fight a toe-to-toe battle against Wilder. Fury slugged with his last two opponents Pianeta and Seferi, but neither of them had the punching power to dent his chin the way Wilder does. The only guy that Fury has fought during his career that had the power to knock him out was Wladimir, and he used a lot of different spoiling and fouling tactics to get the ‘W’ in that fight. When Fury did stand in front of Wladimir, he made sure he was in close so that he couldn’t get any leverage on his punches. Since Wladimir had no inside game whatsoever, Fury was safe when he was in close. Fury would then hammer Wladimir with clubbing shots thrown with the back of his fists rather than the front knuckle portion of his gloves. As I mentioned earlier, there were quite a few rabbit punches thrown by Fury without referee Tony Weeks doing anything to address the fouling until the 11th, when he took a single point away. As far as Wladimir was concerned, it was too little too late. If Fury decides to bend the rules against Wilder on Saturday night, it result in him releasing furious vengeance upon him with him throwing his windmill punches. It might be too much for Fury if Wilder goes into the windmill mode. There’s no stopping Wilder when he goes into the windmill mode. The only thing you can stand back and hope he doesn’t land more than one of those windmill shots, because if he lands at least two, it’s going be goodnight Irene.
Wilder doubts that Fury, 30, will even attempt to brawl with him. He thinks it’s just a bluff on Fury’s part to try and trick him or get the boxing public excited about something with next to no chance of happening. The only thing Wilder is expecting Fury to do is to box for 12 rounds, and hope he can get lucky and win a decision somehow.
“That’s not his game. I don’t believe that one bit,” said Wilder to ESPN. “That hype will not live up to the fight. That’s just something to promote. I don’t believe he’ll do that one bit. If he does get brave and do that, it will be the biggest mistake of his life.”
Wilder is right. Fury knows that if he abandons his safety first game plan, he’s going to put himself in great danger of being knocked out. Fury isn’t going to want to put himself at risk in this fight because if he gets nailed by Wilder with a big shot, he’ll wobble and be at the mercy of one of Deontay’s sledgehammer right hands. You don’t want to be helpless when Wilder lands one of his big rights. We saw happened to Artur Szpilka and Siarhei Liakhovich when Wilder hit them with his best right hands. Szpilka was taken out of the ring on a stretcher, and Liakhovich was concussed on the canvas with his arms and legs both in a spasm.
If Fury gets careless on Saturday night, he could wind up in the same position as those two after getting tagged by Wilder. Heck, even if Fury DOESN’T get careless, he still could wind up knocked cold on the canvas on Saturday. Wilder has shown that he only needs one punch and it’s over with. If Fury does get hit, it would be better if he went down completely rather than slowly falling down the way that Audley Harrison did in his 1st round knockout loss to Wilder in April 2013. Harrison looked good in the opening seconds of the fight, but after clipped with a big right hand, he was helpless from that point on. Wilder then windmilled on Harrison until he slowly slid to the canvas. It was ugly to watch.