Joshua V Fury: Who is more washed?

Fury is probably the more washed.

I don't think there's a crazy amount in it - as you note, Joshua's the more shopworn (perhaps unsurprisingly given he's trodden the harder career path), but Fury is both older and far less respectful of his body.

The other factor is Fury's often been inconsistent - he gets treated in every theoretical discussion as if he were going to be at his best, but that rarely happened through his career...
It's one of the things that makes this discussion awkward - Fury gets a consistent benefit of the doubt whilst it's assumed all of Joshua's frailties come to the fore... Even if that plays out on one or both points, it's probably not as extreme as often implied.


The biggest problem would, as ever, be getting Fury to sign.

 

Hard to know before we see them against at least some semblance of half decent opp again. But to me it seems like the decline for AJ is more mental and for Fury physical, for whatever that's worth.

 

Fury physically
Joshua mentally

I have Fury 60:40 favourite

It would be an interesting build up and fight. hope it happens

 

As rare as it was for Fury to be at his best, it happened reliably against his best opponents and that shouldn’t he ignored.

We don’t really know if AJ is as washed as it may seem, he got trounced upon the opening bell by DuBois and by the time he started to recover he had taken way too much damage.

I honestly have a hard time saying “how washed” either of the two is…

 

Up to a point.

Consensus would be that Usyk, Wlad and Wilder were his best three opponents...

Usyk 1, Wlad and Wilder 2 he was basically at his best.

Usyk 2 he was in okay but not close to as good as the first bout... I can't really call that his best.

Wilder 1 and 3 he was pretty awful... You can argue given his condition he couldn't have fought much better in 1, but it's a stretch.


Put that way, out of his six biggest bouts, he was at his best in half of them.

Or out of his three biggest bouts he was at his best for two-thirds of them.


That's not to say you haven't got a point on some level - equally the idea that he always turned up at his best for his biggest fights is an exaggeration (not that you, personally, were saying he always did)...

 

yep. This is why it’s interesting. It’s so weird how you have a guy like Fury who can be so undisciplined outside of the ring, but when he gets in the ring, he is pure 100% warrior and never loses focus or confidence. And then AJ who is very disciplined outside of the ring can fall apart mentally in the ring when things don’t go his way (side note, not against Dubois, kept getting up, kept trying, went out on his shield).

 

Fury’s last 3: life and death vs Ngannou, and 2 competitive but clear losses to Usyk

Joshua’s last 3: KO2 Ngannou - totally battered by Dubois - 8 rounder vs Jake Paul

Fury’s losses were at least competitive and he’s never had a performance anywhere near as bad as AJ’s vs Dubois - but he is far less disciplined than AJ is between fights.

Neither is considerably more shot than the other which is why the fight will come down to style and skills imo.

 

I suppose it also depends on what we define as Fury’s biggest fights. Chisora 1 (and arguably 2) were pivotal fights in his career, if he had lost to Chisora it would have seriously derailed his career and delayed his shot as Klitschko even further.

Fury was the underdog in Chisora 1, and he absolutely delivered, so I’d definitely count that as a case where he more than rose to the big occasion.

 

I suppose you could put it that way, yes - and you'd have a point with Chisora 1.

Equally...If we're looking around career impact that way?

Losing the first Wilder bout (which he came close to, despite dominating) would've meant he didn't get the Wilder rematch, or the Usyk fights... That was really the pivotal moment in whether he had a real comeback or just a brief fling with the sport again before disappearing completely.
And he wasn't close to his best in that one.

It's always interesting to look at Fury, with all the ups and downs, when the mindless benefit of the doubt at all turns is taken out of the way.

 

Fury wasn't pretty awful vs Wilder in their 1st fight.

Fury boxed a good tactical fight vs Wilder winning a majority of rounds outside of the rounds he got knocked down in and pretty much everyone thought he won the fight.

Fury then realised the better course of action was to put weight on and walk down Wilder in the rematch instead of giving him time and range to land his dangerous right hand.

But to say Fury was "awful" against Wilder in their 1st fight is complete nonsense. Fury weighed 6 pounds less vs Wilder 1 compared to Usyk 1 so he wasn't in that bad of shape.

 

What? Wilder 1 wasn't an awful performance from Fury at all. He outboxed him for large portions of that fight, on the backfoot, and many thought it was a robbery. That's an awful comment.

Yeah no idea what that user is talking about. He's made some weird comments, like how Jake Paul would have a chance at going the distance with Canelo. Honestly I'm not even sure this user was here live for the Fury Wilder 1 fight because many argued it was a robbery. Fury won at least 8 rounds. It was difficult finding rounds for Wilder in that fight bar the ones with the knockdowns.

 

Objectively, he was in awful shape and that can't be considered him fighting at his best as a result - at his best, and fighting that style, he wouldn't have gassed so badly that he gets caught twice like that against a lesser fighter.

I've said I don't know how many times that it was a robbery.

 

Both about the same...

 

Maybe they don't look like that, Joshua still maintains his physical shape, Fury also looks solid, but they have tough fights behind them.