Klitschko-Fury: ****ysis

So it's been a few months now that one of the biggest upsets in heavyweight championship history occured; Tyson Fury beat Wladimir Klitschko to win the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles and begin a new era.

The fight itself doesn't live up to the sheer effect of the impact it had on the division. In fact, it was one of the most boring fights in recent memory. Neither fighter showed much offensively, but that doesn't mean Fury didn't put up a fine boxing clinic.

The point of this thread is to clear up some myths on why Wladimir went out the way he did, and what in all likelihood really happened.

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1. AGE:

You've definitely head it a million times at this point. "Wlad was shot", "Wlad was too old", "Wlad was mentally unprepared". All sorts of excuses to take away credit from Fury. People tried to equate this fight with Ali-Holmes or Tyson-Williams/McBride. Let's just say that's bull****.

Ali had an incredibly taxing career and took a huge amount of punishment in a high number of bouts which impacted him physically and mentally. Tyson had a young mans style that was not meant for longetivity, had to take several years off the sport on 2 occassions, and did not lead a clean lifestyle.

Wlad in comparison is one of the few heavyweights that "barely got hit" during his career. You've definitely seen people bring this up when arguing his greatness. He also has a very economic, low-output style revolving around power and strength which ages well.

Now, Wlad was not in his prime. This was not the guy that shut out Haye in 2011. But this WAS the guy that ruined Pulevs world last years. This WAS the guy that embarassed Povetkin in his backyard 2 years ago. Sure, he probably isn't as sharp and quick as he used to be, but he was in great shape and showed little signs of significant deterioration.

2. FURYS "SPEED":

Another point that is brought up but is nonsense is that Fury was too fast for Wlad. No he wasn't. This was not a replay of Liston-Ali, where Wlad/Liston is leading with jabs and power punches and Fury/Ali is outmaneuvering him. It wasn't.

At no point of the fight did Wlad have trouble cutting the ring off on Fury. You'll notice that Wlad was actually in front of him most of the time. Now, Fury did manage distance well. Excellent, in fact. He was always in position to land his own punches while Wlad was just a bit short on his. BUT AT ANY POINT OF THE FIGHT, WLAD COULD HAVE WENT AT HIM GUNS BLAZING, and Fury would not be able to escape him. Now, why didn't he? Well, let's talk about that.

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Wlad by nature is a cautious man. His style is simple; hit and don't get hit. You see a lot of people utilizing this style. Most of the time they're counterpunchers. Wlad wasn't. His style was based on having an advantage in range and always being able to get off first. He did NOT have that advantage against Fury, and the limitations of his style were immediately exposed.

1. Feinting:

Fury feinted. A lot. This threw Wlad off his game completely. He was never static and Wlad was never sure. It created doubt in his mind that leading could screw him over royally. Whenever he tried to attempt something, Fury would feint and Wlad would reset. Over and over again. This gave him a headache.

2. Offensive limitations:

Let's face it. Wlad over the last decade was somewhat of a robot, unlike his brother who was a natural. His style was mechanical and limited, his offense especially. Once upon a time he had a great offense; Combination punching, hooks off the jab, even the occassional bodyshot. But Steward changed that. Wlads offense now consists of two punches, his left hook and his right hand.

His left hook is a close-range punch and he cannot throw it at long distances.. Since this fight was fought at range, it was basically useless.

Which leaves his right hand. The right hand, that in combination with his jab dominated a decade of world class fighters. His vaunted 1-2 made for some incredibly dominant performances. So what was the problem against Fury? He couldn't get the "1" right. He couldn't lead with his right hand, but instead almost always set it up with his jab. Since Fury was the boss at range, Wlad couldn't get his jab in successfully, and thus the right hand never followed.

3. Counter-punching:

A silent weakness of Wlads is that he is especially gunshy against counter-punchers. You could see this in the Haye fight, but the worst case was against Ibragimov, probably the most boring title fight of all time. Ibragimov, who had a sneaky counter left hand gave Wlad fits. The fight looked like a circus act, with both of them pawing with their jabs, at times for minutes. It took Wlad 5 rounds to unleash his first right hand. The same amount it took him to throw one against Fury.

He was able to get away with this because he was much bigger than Ibragimov, and was able to outjab him and even throw an occassional power-punch without risk. But this time around, Fury was the one getting his jabs in and landing consistently, while Wlad cluelessly follwed him around.






So there you have it folks. A detailed list of reasons why Wlad did, and probably always would have lost to Fury. Just a stylistic nightmare. :good

 

He'll need to revert back to his old days to beat him. Fury is an opponent he can't beat with his normal style. Can he do it?