An unbiased look at Fury's top 10 opponents

By popular demand

Wins:

1. 39.5 Wlad, away, 10-2 schooling

2. 34.5 Wilder, away, TKO7 domination

3. 36 Wilder, 20 months inactive, away, KO11 war

4. 29 Wallin, neutral, 9-3 war

5. 36.5 Cunningham, away, KO7 war

6. 31 Chisora, neutral, RET10 (Chisora couldn't land a glove)

7. 27.5 Chisora, neutral, 10-2 domination

8. 27.5 Hammer, home, RET8 (Hammer couldn't land a glove)

9. 33 Johnson, short notice, home, 12-0 shutout

Draw:

1. 33 Wilder, away, war (controversial result)

Fury was the underdog in 4/10 fights (Chisora 1, Wlad, Wilder 1, Wilder 2) and a 20/80 underdog vs Wlad. Fury was the away fighter against 5/6 of his best opponents and was unambiguously the B-side against his 3 best opponents. 18 consecutive defence Wlad was 27 year old Fury’s first championship opponent. Because of the lesser hype around Fury, more of his opponents came to win or believed that they could. Fury has faced KO artists professionally 4 times, twice when rusty and poorly conditioned (going 40 full rounds and never beaten) signed to fight Haye in 2013 and fought a 22 year old Price in the amateurs when he was 17. 1/10 of Fury's opponents was 37+. 5/10 of Fury's opponents were 6'5+. One of Fury's opponents was a slick mover. One of Fury's opponents was a tough southpaw. 5/10 of Fury’s opponents were ex/current world champions (Wlad, Wilder x3, Cunningham) 3 reigning (Wlad, Wilder x2).

 

This post wasn't directed at you, several responders wanted me to do a review of Fury's top 10 opponents (and Wilder's). AJ's claim to having the best resume was always highly contentious: he never had a win nearly as good as Fury's schooling of champ Wlad in Germany. And the wins over 2x cruiser champ Cunningham in America, two wins over a non-shopworn Chisora, Hammer, non-shot Johnson etc. were also not considered, despite three of them being better than a war with green Whyte or outpointing Joey twelve Parker at home with help from the ref. Wilder's wins over Ortiz were not as good over the wins over Wlad, the wins over Wilder and the wins over AJ but Ortiz 1 is surely in the top 10 of current wins in the division.

 

McDerm was a better win given the context but I don't think he was better than a non-shot KJ in absolute terms, who went on to give Hammer a close fight and has several wins over the worst Klitschko era contenders. Had a fit 24 year old Fury rather than fat camp 21 year old Fury fought exactly the same McDermott, he would have schooled and stopped him without any difficulty whatsoever.

 

This isn't my opinion, it's the consensus: [url]https://eyeonthering.com/boxing/collision-course-wladimir-klitschko-vs-tyson-fury[/url]

According to Compubox, Wlad landed 52 punches (the 2nd fewest ever in a heavyweight championship fight) 34 of which were jabs, to Fury's 86 punches, 48 power.

Even Wlad's judges in Germany didn't unanimously give him ONE single round and gave Fury 8/9 rounds, four unanimously. Yet you claim that Fury won "7/8 rounds".

 

So the Compubox stats which suggest that Canelo has lost several of his big fights are also wildly wrong, good to know.

I'm sure Wlad's judges in Germany were bending over backwards to give Fury every round they could. It's not like the superstar champion home fighter tends to benefit from a solid helping of A-side advantage in the scoring.

6/61 of the public scorecards give Fury 7 or fewer rounds. I don't see any point in playing the fight back at 0.25 speed, Fury won clearly and limited Wlad to mounting a historically low amount of offence with his feints, movement and counter-punching threat.