An unbiased look at Fury's top 10 opponents

Old 22 win streak Klitschko in Germany one year removed from his best win (people love to ignore the context) who gave 27.5 year old 18-0 star amateur AJ hell 17 months later having been inactive the whole time, is probably the best opponent beaten (or Wilder) by any active heavyweight and the manner in which Fury did it was extremely impressive, limiting Wlad to 52 punches landed (the 2nd fewest ever in a HW championship fight) over 12 rounds. You can also look at Fury's wins over gatekeepers Chisora and Hammer, who have fought plenty of good names: Vitali, Usyk, Haye, Povetkin, Ortiz and Yoka to name a few but none have beaten them both nearly so easily as Fury.

For all the claims that Fury's resume lacks depth he's fought a lot of different body types and styles, more than all historical heavies because many didn't exist back then: elite SHW boxer-puncher, GOAT punching sniper x3, tough southpaw, 6'3 cruiser champ mover, tough 240+ lbs mauler x3. Only the latter two types really existed 35+ years ago and they were still rare.

Fury was 24.5 when he fought 2x cruiser champ Cunningham in America, without his trainer, clearly manic in the ring. He got off the floor to stop the 6'3, 210 lbs Cunningham (a big heavyweight historically) something that no one else did in 40 fights, despite Cunningham fighting 10 cruiser champs. Wallin is a 6'5, 240 lbs southpaw with decent pedigree, a lot of physical and mental toughness and was unbeaten fighting a weight drained, overconfident Fury and despite an awful cut Fury still won the fight clearly. These performances show massive character and prove that even when not at his best, Fury can still think on his feet and grind out the win against a tough contender.

 

Parker's best uncontroversial win is going life and death over 12 with Takam in NZ, whose best win is a 9-3 decision against mid-40's Tony Thompson in France, or possibly his 7-3 over Jerry Forrest in America and had pre-Parker losses to Gregory Tony and was KO'd cold in 10 by Povetkin.

Ruiz destroyed AJ but after blowing up in weight, not training and getting schooled the rematch he had a war with 40 year old, 18 months inactive, defeated in his last fight Arreola, got dropped and hurt multiple times. Wilder schooled, dropped and retired Arreola 5 years and 4 fights prior. Ruiz won a competitive 10 round decision against shot Liakhovich, who Wilder brutally KO'd in under 2 minutes 18 months prior. He also lost several rounds over 10 to a 39 year old Kevin Johnson. Ruiz hasn't stopped 8/13 of his previous opponents, 10 of which were journeyman, despite Ruiz being an aggressive front foot fighter.

The very fast, very tough, 6'7, historically hard punching Wilder in America was a vastly more dangerous opponent than Parker and Ruiz. I hope the Wilder-Ruiz fight does happen for several reasons but ultimately he's a stubbier, more obese and lighter punching Stiverne with faster hands.

 

Fury is overwhelmingly regarded as the No.1 heavyweight, beating a guy who lost devastatingly to 25/1 underdog taco tits and whose best win is Fury's older inactive sloppy seconds at home doesn't make you No.1.

Heavyweight is by far the most lucrative, prestigious division and has more active fighters than most. You can't compare the resumes of HW's today to 5'10, half-blind, 205 lbs HW's from 50 years ago, or compare HW's with bantamweights. They can only be compared with other HW's and only HW's who are not too distantly removed in time. By these metrics, Fury has a very good HW resume. Far better wins than Wlad and Vitali and no losses, let alone to a Ross Puritty or Andy Ruiz.

 

And? AJ's 10th best is Eric Molina, who came to lie down. Wilder's 10th best may also be Molina. When you get to Vitali's 12th best win you start knocking on the door of a Danny Williams or Albert Sosnowski.

 

Whether you disagree or not that's the consensus result on eyeonthering. Even A-side superstar champion Wlad's judges in Germany didn't give him a single round unanimously, gave Fury 4 unanimously and gave Fury 8/9 in total. It's hard to give Wlad a round in that fight, he can barely land a glove.

 

Says the ignoramus.

Rather than going back 60+ years to the relative boxing dark ages, let's look at some of the champs of the last 15 or so years:

Lamon Brewster, old Hasim Rahman, Nikolai Valuev, Siarhei Liakhovich, old Oleg Maskaev, old Shannon Briggs, Ruslan Chagaev, Sultan Ibragimov, washed Sam Peter, David Haye, Bermane Stiverne, Charles Martin, Anthony Joshua, Joseph Parker, Andy Ruiz and Oleksandr Usyk.

The only champs who you can make a very strong argument for over Wilder are the Klitschko's and Fury, maybe Usyk but despite his cruiser accomplishments he's only beaten 10 loss Chisora away and Ruiz-victim AJ away at HW. By any measurement Wilder is one of the strongest champions of the last 15 years and an extremely dangerous one on account of his length, speed, power and toughness, especially at home.

 

85% of Usyk's resume is at cruiserweight.

You can't compare heavyweights to lightweights, it's absurd. Heavyweights are massive and punch extremely hard, especially today. Have too many punishing fights at HW and you end up in a wheelchair. Heavyweights also vary far more in terms of body type and style, men in smaller divisions are relatively similar to each other by comparison. HW boxing is virtually its own sport, Fury's resume can only be compared to his fellow HW's and relatively recent ones at that.

Fury is the No.1 HW until proven otherwise. He's beaten two 10+ consecutive defence world heavyweight champs, in their backyards as the B-side, in dominant fashion. He's had all the belts and never lost them in the ring. He's fought the two hardest punchers, both 6'5+, on 4 occasions and not been beaten once. Usyk's beaten AJ in good fashion but so did Andy Ruiz.

 

Prime Povetkin's best win was a 10 round war with Carlos Takam, who had previously lost to Gregory Tony and whose best career win was a 9-3 decision over a mid-40's Tony Thompson in France. Luis Ortiz fought Thompson two fights later, won every minute and demolished him in 6 rounds. And even on Ortiz's relatively thin list of top wins, Thompson barely makes the top 5.

Notice I said prime Povetkin, not 39 year old Povetkin who got dropped in his previous fight in a war with David Price.

Against Arreola: broke right hand in 4th round and tore bicep, didn't quit, dropped him in 4 and retired him in 8

Against un-KO'd Duhaupas: had eye closed up late in the fight, didn't quit like Dubois and TKO'd him in 11

Against un-KO'd Ortiz: took multiple flush bombs in the 7th round, came back to TKO Ortiz in the 10th after dropping him 3 times

Against Fury 2 and 3: didn't quit despite taking a beating over 7 and stopped on his feet. Floored heavily in the 3rd round of the trilogy fight, came back to drop Fury heavily x2 in the 4th, kept going until he got brutally KO'd in the 11th, never thought about quitting.

Wilder dropped or KO'd all of his title fight opponents, had 9 KO's in 10 defences, KO'd Ortiz twice and floored Fury 4 times in 3 fights. There are many fights where Povetkin didn't stop fringe contenders or journeymen.