Fury will treat this like the Tom Schwarz fight, not to compare Mak to Schwarz, but he'll be motivated and in high spirits with what's slow and limited in front of him. The signs are there for it unless he's just got old overnight and it turns into a slugfest
Except legit KO power in both hands I can see Fury being dropped in this fight Lesser punchers have dropped Fury and I don't see Makhmudov not landing something big as some point This is going to be a slug fest which will make Big Mak into a fan favourite
Yea I wonder at 37 almost 38 and if Fury has no other option than making this a sort of slugfest because he's aging and getting slower. Fury also has trouble at times in the clinch with physically strong guys, which Mak is. But let's also not forget, Mak is limited. His toolbox is missing quite a few tools.
Yep - Mak is journeyman level, max. Doesn't mean he can't be entertaining, but this shouldn't be competitive if Fury takes it seriously and has much left.
Zhang's a mixed bag... But literally everyone at gatekeeper+ level who's seen the final bell has beaten him on the cards - even Hrgovic, who isn't great on cards, beat Zhang on cards. That's not to say it wasn't a really good win for Parker, especially given the depths he had to climb from... But Kabayel's the first, and so far only, opponent who had both the chin and the power to beat him down and stop him. All that said... Zhang is literally 50/50 against anyone remotely good, from the draw with Forrest on up. Kabayel's wins against Zhang and Chisora are pretty good... The Sanchez win is overrated but decent. The Makh win was very overrated, but isn't so much now. He's definitely up there somewhere, but it's more the thinness at the top of the division that makes that a sure thing - he could do with proving a bit more and targeting crap opponents less, but he's definitely up there somewhere.
High risk low reward. He’s not that good, but he appears to be in the same power class as AJ. That makes for one dangerous AF cherry pick journeyman.
If anyone thinks Makhmudov is even remotely a threat to Fury then they need to go and see a doctor. He's either gonna spend 12 rounds dancing about in a glorified sparring session or get gets an accumulative stoppage in the mid rounds. Big Mahk doesn't have the skills to pull it off.
Zhang lost two competitive, highly disputed fights against top 10 heavyweights. I actually thought he won the Parker fight, and not to mention he never went down once in those fights. Kabayel was the only boxer to beat Zhang convincingly and KO him. Kabayel deserves all the hype. However, I believe that in his current form, Usyk would still beat him.
Kabayel is not "levels below Fury" its more likely the other way around. Fury doesn't have a clear win in three and a half years if this is a mismatch he needs to show that. This is not a title fight of any kind and Makhmudov is a top 25 opponent. Does Fury have a win over anyone who'd currently beat Makhmudov?