No, we're not doing this. "Dusseldorf Fury" isn't some special powered-up mythical entity like "Tokyo Douglas". Wlad fought like a scared biatch that night, end of story. If he fought Fury with as much courage as later fought Joshua in his night of redemption, Klitschko would have won, period. 39 year old Usyk still outboxes literally any version of Fury that has ever existed.
Styles make fights. Joshua is much, much easier to hit, and Vlad hit him. The 39 year old Klitschko is much better that same guy at 41 with 2 years of ring rust.
We'll never know. All we know is the outcome of the two fights they had. Both were old and had been in hard fights, but they were in top shape and prepared as well as they could. On each of those days, either of them probably beats most of the other heavyweights around. So no excuses, the better man won - twice. Chapter closed. If you have the secret sauce to wind back time though, you will be very rich!
Fury, keeps the debate alive and a bit more interesting. The whole era suffers if Usyk doesn't have any competitive fights, even in hypotheticals.
Disagree - that Wlad had well-documented issues outside the ring with Hayden etc and was out of sorts mentally, though Fury has to get some credit for getting in his head. The Wlad that fought AJ, although 2 years older and slightly declined physically (Wlad is still in incredible shape!), seemed to me to be MUCH more mentally on point, he wanted to be in the ring and fight, and was not tentative and gunshy like againts Fury (and Jennings before him to an extent). Styles makes fights, for sure, but context is everything is just as valid
If Usyk's stamina at 39 is the same as that seen in his two matches against Fury, the Ukrainian will win against the Fury of 2015.
We've never seen 39 year old Usyk in the ring but logically there's a point where prime Fury would win, even comfortably.
It wasn't a "night of redemption" lmao, it was the biggest act of boxing cuckoldry I've ever seen. Worse than Lerena's loss to Okolie. Wlad looked better purely because he was fighting an opponent with less speed, agility, defence etc. He didn't have the stamina to sustain an assault without risking gassing out either, hence he blundered it. He failed to do what Andy Ruiz and Dubois did with relative ease. It was a shameful performance.
Nandrolone Fury would just be a quicker, younger version of the man Usyk had his self-admitted toughest fight against. Fury’s speed was a key factor as to why he did so well in the first fight and he was 36 years old with a near decade of substance abuse and overeating. I was shocked at how well he did from range and in setting up those body shots, the pace Usyk brought was just too much for his gas tank in the end and it was unlike anything he’d seen before. Still, Fury went into deep rounds plenty when he was younger and lighter as well so I can’t help but think his gas tank would fare better than it did against an even younger version of Usyk than the scenario details.
Fury almost got the first fight with Usyk, so if he has a dozen years of youth on Usyk it is very likely he wins. Fury called himself 2Fast back then because he really was the quickest SHW. He stopped doing that in recent years because he is slower. Usyk is used to out-speeding and outlasting everyone. 20's Fury is going to be a problem for him. Also that Fury didn't have the punch resistance issues of recent times. Fury wasn't sitting down on his shots as much, so wasn't as dangerous in that way, but in point-fighting he was. Fury should be favourite there, though Usyk can't be ruled out of course. As for Wlad, he couldn't catch 2Fast with his jab, so wouldn't throw. He was obviously worried about Fury's counters otherwise he'd just 'let his hands go' and exchange. Fury had at least enough power to make him cautious and probably too cautious, but when you look how much Wlad missed throwing haymakers against AJ it's clear he was going to struggle to land clean on Fury too. Fury was 70% defence back then, so very hard to hit.