Can any heavyweight from history realistically beat Tyson Fury?

Maybe so but one could reasonably argue that the best men Fury beat are at least comparable to the best guys Lewis beat with Wladimir being comparable to Holyfield and Wilder being comparable to Vitali. Lewis beat a lot of guys but they weren't really exceptional by and large.

 

Yikes...I really like Wilder's super-punching style but, comparable to Vitali? I don't see that.

I have Deontay at #21 ATG, Vitali at #14. Vitali both h2h and ATG was just a better fighter.

Lewis fought better fighters than Fury...Wlad was over 40!

No disrespect intended, I'm open to being talked out of it.

 

Yes but Lewis has alot more filler on his resume, against good/solid world class Heavyweights that's the point. And that's why Lewis is rated far higher than Fury.

 

You could argue that.

The Wlad Fury beat was 39 and from memory the Holyfield that Lewis beat was 36 and 37 (Lewis clearly won the 1st fight).

Vitali and Wilder were very different fighters. Vitali was technically a much better boxer, more durable and had better stamina. Wilder had by far the better explosive 1 punch power. As I suspect most posters will, I consider Vitali as better than Wilder.

 

Great post Terror, thanks for putting this all together!

 

He got dropped by Steve Cunningham ffs

 

“Good boxer with great size” is an accurate description. I like that. And that great size makes a huge difference. For instance, look at how far great size took Valuev. The guy was a limited fighter and I reckon had he have been, let’s say 6’4 and 250, he may not even have been the best boxer in his street, let alone a two time HW champ who went 46-0 at one stage, almost reaching Rocky’s iconic 49-0 record!

Fury though smaller than Valuev, is still the biggest around, and combine that size with him being a decently skilled fighter…by no means anywhere near the greatest, no chance…but still much, much more skilled than Valuev…then he creates headaches and conundrums for a lot in history.

But there’s still a few who would solve that conundrum and outbox him, and with that less than granite chin of his, a few more who could get through his energy sapping leaning and his (not perfect, but at times very effective) jab, and KO him.

 

Valuev is a great comparison from the size advantage point of view! As you noted, Fury is more skilled. I give Fury credit for knowing how use his size to great advantage but those close to his size with more skill, the Klitschko boys and Lennox Lewis, as examples, would certainly beat Fury more often than he would beat them.

 

I don't think it's fair to compare Fury to Valuev. Like you said, Fury is more skilled, but he's not just more skilled. He's in another class on skill entirely. Yes, Fury uses his size to his advantage (especially now) but he's also won fights based on pure skill. He out-skilled Klitschko with his perfect defensive gameplan (despite how dull the fight was) and he outboxed Wilder after a 3 year exile filled with drugs and alcohol. If Wilder faced the Fury that beat Wlad, there wouldn't have been 2 knockdowns.

 

I'm not disagreeing with you at all and I didn't mean to make it sound that way. I was just agreeing with the gentleman related to Fury's size gives him an advantage disproportionate to what his skill level alone would give. All credit to Fury for finding legal and effective ways to use his size. He is a very smart fighter with good skills, ring intelligence, great heart and whiskers that may rival Ali's chin.

 

Fury doesn't belong anywhere near the top 10 HWs all time based on depth of resume, but I agree its erroneous to speculate that all that is incredible about Fury, is his size. His speed, agility and mobility are incredible FOR his size.

There have been plenty of boxers around Fury's size (6ft 8ins+ 265lbs+) all have looked cumbersome and none have come close to being the best HW in the world.

Fury moves and looks like a normal size boxer. I don't think people realise just how big he is. I've stood next to him, he is the biggest human I've been that close to.

How would Mayweather, RJJ or Ali look if they were supersized to 6ft 8ins and 270lbs? You just don't get a sense for how huge that is on TV, especially when he's opposite another very large human being.

 

I think he can crack the top 10 if he beats AJ and Usyk convincingly. And I agree, people don't seem to realize how difficult it is to carry all of that weight and height and still be able to box smoothly. It's more difficult than it looks.

 

I don’t have Wilder top 50…that’s prettier generous! Maybe if he gets a few more ranked wins he can get there. But 21 is a bridge to far for me…

 

Even if we accepted that argument, they would be all that Fury had, while Lewis would have a very big trophy room to fall back on!