Tyson Fury legacy

He never quit in the ring. AJ has.

 

I believe his story begins when he runs his car off the road with ill intentions. If I'm not mistaken he tried to off himself. Obese, coke, booze, the world on his flat shoulders.
Then from there he goes from the bottom up....

 

Bit artificial to say that fight 'mattered most'. If he'd lost to Klitschko or Wilder, then you could easily say 'he lost when it mattered most' then, but he didn't: he won most of his most important fights. Fury calling Usyk a middleweight doesn't really matter - it's just talk. The reality is that he lost to an ATG, and the best HW of his generation, in two competitive fights, not some "middleweight".

 

I think stretching best win lists to 10 or more would bring up some pretty low-level fighters for even the greats. Top 5 is a good enough gauge of a fighter's resumé, but definitely agree that Tyson's Top 5 is pretty poor seeing as it includes fringe guys, gatekeepers really, like Chisora and Wallin. I'd even argue that Whyte by the time he fought Fury was around that level (which wasn't Fury's fault, but does his legacy no favours).

Fury's legacy is defined by just a few fights really, and some wonderful dramatic moments within those fights. He certainly made his mark on boxing, but not enough to stake his claim among the greats,m (even in H2H he'd be right up there).

 

Beat Wlad who had been beaten 4 times before. Beat a heavy puncher who was never a good boxer. Lost to Usyk twice.

Overhyped by the media for years and overhyped by those around him. The public ate and enjoyed the sh1t that was fed to them.

 

Had to win Usyk 2 to save face- failed miserably. Dont see any route wich he will improve his resume now. Will go down the Wilder route and get beat up for a payday from now on. Hope he stays mentally well.

 

Gave him the benefit of doubt till after Wilder 2. Came in unusually heavy for Wilder 3. Ever since has been a strange fest of events and some deluded behaviour. Legacy? Klitschko, Wilder 1 and 2.

 

2 time HW champion
Won WBA, WBO, IBF, WBC HW titles in 2 separate bouts
Beat 2 reigning world champions
Was recognised as #1 HW for a while
5-2-1 in world title fights

Faced 2 long reigning champions

One of the top HWs of his generation and arguably the top for a period of time

 

He has an interesting story - and that's what will be remembered.
In that sense, he has a superb legacy and won't be forgotten.

In terms of legacy as a fighter, rather than as a story, it's more complicated... He's the man who unexpectedly beat Wlad, albeit in a very ugly display, then ran from a rematch and left the scene for a few years. He then came back and feasted on the most overhyped fighter (by an obscene margin) on the scene in Wilder, knocked out a broken Whyte, embarrassed himself against a 0-0 novice and then lost to an aging and undersized ATG in Usyk, clearly and twice.

As a fighter, he goes more into the Vitali bracket of "who did he actually beat?" where there's some assumption he was a very good fighter but not really as much evidence to back it up as you really want.

 

His one legit boxing credential, ugly but effective... And his entertainment credentials.

 

And the win against Klitschko was nothing to shout about either, dude basically out-touched him a couple times. I actually rate AJ's win against a motivated Klitschko much higher.

 

There's something in Wlad's response to the two fights, too...

Wlad desperately wanted the Fury rematch.
Wlad himself chose not to rematch Joshua.

Now if we're honest, this suggests Wlad thought he could do better against Fury, and that he probably couldn't against AJ.

There are mitigating factors:
1) AJ was more likely to improve from the first fight to the second, where Fury was unlikely to.
2) A second loss to AJ could've been damaging to Wlad's health, a second hug and slap loss to Fury would've only really hurt his pride.

The most telling thing, though, is Fury avoided the rematch and Joshua seemed willing to honour it, he just never had to.

There's something here which suggests Wlad himself thought he was in worse shape (mentally if not physically) for Fury than for AJ compared to what he could've been.


Either way... They've both beat him - and there are certainly reasons it can be argued both ways which was the better win.

 

Legacy? Historically he is seriously overrated...

 

AJ beat Klitchko that argument goes out the window Wilder will never Be an all time great his resume is worse than Fury he literally beat nobodies.