Tyson Fury's absolute peak

His peak was Wlad - it's the highpoint of his career in terms of achievement and even if it was a stinkout of a fight, he still had to be at his absolute best (with an uncharacteristically low error count) to get the job done... It's a very credible win, regardless of any circumstances around Wlads mental state.

His second coming... It's just unclear how good he really was.
Beating Wilder in dominant fashion the only time he turned up fit looked great, but if Wilder was anywhere near legit he'd have won #1 and #3 against rusty and unfit and then fat and sloppy Fury (and wouldn't have spent his career ducking contenders).

Arguably his second peak didn't come until Usyk #1 - that's the first time in his comeback he had a truly top class opponent in good condition in the opposite corner... And he did pretty well (lost clearly, but was competitive and fought well).


Given both Fury AND Usyk were past their physical prime, it seems very unlikely that that's the absolute best Fury.

 

2014-15 and 2019-20 seems about right.

His relative inactivity after beating Wlad and a couple other times and weight gain in between and during fights means his form scatters a lot. He was still very formidable in both fights vs Uysk in my opinion in particular he came in great shape for the first fight.

 

100% 14/15

I think preparing for haye took him to another level. Haye was extremely dangerous back then and from my sources (strongman in morcambe) Fury started to drink less leading up to fights around then.

Apparently around the time of the first chisora fight and early on in his career, he was drinking lime a fish even with a fight just weeks away

He was 100% in his physical prime then. I don't care how special or freaky someone is. You can't gain over 100lb over 3 years, to then lose it and be the same athlete

People have short memories. Everyone laughed at the thought of Fury having a comeback and winning a world title.

We can hate the guy all we want and his match choices have been terrible, but coming back to be competitive against the best boxer ever over 2 fights is an accomplishment.

 

One of... But yes, it certainly is.

The difficulty with Fury, especially after the comeback) is that he could perform for just one fight at a way higher level than he'd replicate several fights either side (Wilder 2, for example) until Usyk.

It's not so much that the good performances are flukes above his ability, they're not, but that it becomes difficult to really call these peaks when they're so short-lived... It's that you can't pick Fury from a particular time period and know what you're getting because he was so inconsistent - you'd have no choice but to take him from one specific fight.

Absolutely no question.

 

He has had 2 peaks.in some ways you could say he is mentally stronger in his comeback, similar to Ali when he had his second stint. He may be more robust and stronger. Does Fury pre wlad rise up vs Wilder? Maybe, he's climbed off the deck before, but I think he looked more chinny then

I think he was physically in his prime vs wlad

Back and forth are part of the game. We will do it again for sure, but it is all good

 

You have to take quality of opponents into account.

Fury only fought two top quality contenders in his career - Wlad and Usyk.

Just unpacking it for a minute...
- Wlad (declined a bit, but definitely not shot) Vs Fury (physically prime) - Fury wins.
- Usyk (past physical prime, losing a little speed) Vs Fury (past physical prime) - Fury loses.

So... Of his two best performances (Usyk 1 and Wlad), it's very clear which he was in the best shape for - can there really be any argument at all that crushing a can-crusher in a one-sided beatdown compares with that?

 

Equally, does Fury pre-Wlad turn up in quite such horrible shape for Wilder #1?

And if he doesn't, and doesn't gas, does he even get caught that badly in #1?

I don't think so...

(If that happens, he never flips to "kronk" and never goes into #3 thinking he can lazily bulldoze this bum - his likely mindset imho).

 

Peak fitness was probably over 10 years ago....however his ring IQ was at its best imo for the 2nd Wilder fight

 

The Wlad fight was a fantastic performance and I'd give that version of Fury a chance against anyone, past or present. A guy that big moving so fluidly is perhaps without parallel.

Fury Wilder 2 and Fury Usyk 1 were both much diminished versions of him where he'd leant into certain weaker areas of his game in order to compensate for those aspects (gas tank, knees, elbows) that were diminished.

 

"can we say that his run of Abell-Chisora II-Hammer-Klitschko was his absolute peak?"

Almost. Fury was in shocking state for Abell. He was at his absolute best on the run to Wlad.

"Tyson Fury's training camp for the rematch with Derek Chisora was described as "extravagant" and "hard," with Fury saying he underwent the most rigorous camp of his career. Fury trained in a high-end location, away from social media, and was reportedly undergoing intensive physical training, including wrestling and running drills"

Wilder 2 was phenomenal and cemented Fury's H2H ability as at least one of the best ever but we never saw that version of Fury again and it was a perfect storm type fight where no one (least of all Wilder, who was physically, mentally and tactically unprepared due to Fury's intelligent aggression) expected Fury to march Wilder down, club him over and maul him.

 

I don't see it.

For starters, I don't see how fighting someone who (at best!) was a couple of levels below his best opponents would produce his peak.

But also... Wilder was always pretty basic, he telegraphed anything really big like crazy... That doesn't require peak ring IQ to look like a genius, the contrast does plenty of heavy lifting.

 

No doubt but he still looked fat and worn out. He was almost a decade past prime. Usyk was also a fair bit past prime though so it's swings and roundabouts.