Tyson Fury . Genuine great fighter or personality driven legacy?

Maybe it's an "appeal to authority", but Emmanuel Steward saw a young Tyson Fury in 2009/2010 and quickly determined that he'd "reign supreme" and was "the biggest threat to Klitschko", "If he could settle down with a good training program".

This was at a time when he was considered a joke by most on this forum. And Fury was objectively underrated until he'd beaten Wilder in their rematch; he was underdog against Chisora 1, Wlad, Wilder 1 and Wilder 2, and Haye before Haye ducked it 7 days out.

Fury never got the backing of Joshua, or even Price on the come up. The hype was generated only after he'd collected all of the belts and beaten two historically long-reigning champions in their backyards, without a loss.

Fury's resume is also underrated, especially relative to Joshua's. Even after Usyk had beaten him twice, the consensus on here was that Joshua still had "the best resume". From 2004 on, the only HW's with better resumes than Fury are Usyk (certainly) and Wlad (debatable due to his five losses and lack of superior top wins).

 

Agree. He never once fought an opponent his OWN side let alone anyone bigger and was quite often the younger of the two men in the ring. Yet at the end of the day his resume nor performances were that great

 

It's kinda tragic with Fury he was so likeable singing the song's post Wilder. Some of my all time favorite moment's in the Ring. But he seemed a total dick last few years doing click bait non-sense. Saying he what he did after the Usyk, was insanity. I'm not liking him lately. He seems bi-polar.

He was very likeable his wife seems great. He was a very family oriented man. Right when the Paul's starting exploding he got this nasty demeanor about him. Frankly I have a hard time listening to him even talk & I just loved the guy. I'm certain he has some kind of personality disorder. I just can't stand narcissism.

I had a dream right after the first Usyk fight & Usyk appeared in my dream & talked to me he was the most down to earth guy ever. The part i remember most was one line he said to me in the dream. I could remember because we toasted the line with a cheers (we were at the Bar)

"If ever a man deserved a slice of humble pie it was Tyson Fury"- Usyk.

We both laughed & shared a drink at the bar.. I always had a love for him post that dream Usyk I mean he was just such a humble man. He never once talked about himself in the dream.

 

With only 3 world title defences? it’s limited where we can possibly rank him.

 

To me how good he was really hinges on how good Wilder was during a period where the division was a bit thin. My opinion is a good fighter artificially buoyed by dirty tactics and the hype machine.

 

Especially when one of those wasn't a rematch defence against Wlad... That particular asterisk detracts from easily his best win.

Ironically, decent performance Vs Usyk (especially first time around) probably does more to establish where he sat than any other of his wins...
Doing better than Joshua overall against the clear #1 stacks up well for him - especially as Joshua essentially fought the who's-who of the era and beat almost all of them.
Wilder's resume being so thin makes it unclear exactly how he sat, yet a lot of Fury fans made their beds with hanging Fury's reputation on Wilder - at absolute best it hasn't aged well, and in many ways that's a generous position.

It's a career defined in some ways more by asterisks than by achievements.

 

Generational level talent who never lived up to what he could have been because of his out of ring issues, buoyed by his big personality.

Still damn good at his best though. Not an easy night for anyone at his best. Huge, strong, awkward, tricky, weirdly slick…

He’ll always be a bit of a what if. And cited as an example of ATG recovery ability. The way he can go from unconscious or clearly concussed to fighting competently in a span of 8 seconds is ridiculous.

 

Was a rematch really warranted against Wlad after such a one sided decision? I know I would have liked to have seen it, but I understand the decision not to go through with it.

I thought AJ v Wlad was way closer and that never got a second bout. In fact, AJ only ever rematched those he lost to.

 

obscenely overrated. he is the boxing version of ronda rousey. even if you cant see it from my perspective, from an execution of skills and technique examination, his resume itself is crap.

 

Yeah, and it doesn't help that two guys he clearly didn't want to fight on the way up, Price and Ustinov, were true big men like him.

For me, there is only one true ATG this era, and that is Usyk. Both Fury and Joshua beating a 39/40 Wladimir is blown way out of proportion. It is the natural order of things, not a resume defining achievement.

Fury had a solid career, he was seen as the champion for a time after all, but it could/should/would have been so much more...

A lot of talk and a lot of wasted potential

 

But Usyk's best win is against Fury, with his next best win being AJ. Out of 5 opponents.

If they're rubbish, how does that make Usyk an ATG?

FTR, I think Usyk is currently the best fighter of this era, but that perception is tainted with the lack of activity.

 

Bit of an extreme take. I don't think they were rubbish.

I see Usyk in the top 20 range. I know some place him top 10, some even top 5.

I agree that the lack of activity and opponent variety is not good for Usyk's legacy.

But, no, Fury certainly was not rubbish. As I said "Fury had a solid career, he was seen as the champion for a time after all". But I hoped for more from his career

 

yes it was warranted, it was in the contract and was going ahead till fury pulled out n went “off the rails”

 

It was a stinker of a fight.

The underdog won, there were questions about the condition of the champ... Besides which, Wlad clearly thought he could/would win the rematch, and he wanted it - it was warranted.

Fury running away from it puts an asterisk there.

The big difference is it was Wlad who chose not to rerun the AJ fight - he had the option both times, AJ was open to it whilst Fury ran away.

Nobody puts an asterisk next to AJ's loss to Dubois, rightly, because it's AJ that chose not to take the rematch.

When the vastly more proven favourite wants the rematch after an upset win, it's usually justifiable - that doesn't mean they necessarily win it, but it puts any questions to bed... When an underdog gets an unexpected win and then squirms out of (or outright refuses to take) the rematch, that tells you a lot about their confidence in actually being the better fighter.

 

Just because a rematch is in a contract doesn't mean we needed it. Especially when the first fight was so one sided.