Could Fury have beaten prime Wladimir?

I’m not sure if you’re serious, but I genuinely believe that those early vulnerable versions of Wlad would have had a decent chance of beating Tyson.

He had no fear back then where he let his hands go.

 

Do you really think that when Wlad was face to face with Tyson where he couldn’t let his hands go, that it was due to his personal issues?

Tyson fought like a coward?

Because he didn’t engage Wlad and entertain us all by having a tear up?

Really?

Fighters go into fights with specific game plans based upon their attributes.

If AJ wasn’t as powerful and he possessed Tyson skill set, then he too would probably have fought Wlad in the same manner that Tyson did.

 

An older version of Wlad was less vulnerable. But from Tyson’s perspective, a younger version of Wlad would have been much more dangerous to him.

 

The person stopping him from being that bold and aggressive was Tyson Fury.

There’s nothing to suggest that Wlad would/could have fought him any differently.

Jonathan Banks told Wlad to let his hands go, but he could do only do it very briefly in the last round.

It was a psychological block.

 

I don’t agree with this at all.

Even a prime Steward trained version of Wlad was always cautious due to his early knockout defeats.

We saw how he fought Povetkin. We saw how tentative and negative he was.

We also saw how he fought Haye after Haye had disrespected his family.

Wlad’s issues were psychological rather than physical. Of course a fighter slows down with age. We all know that. But why could he only let his hands go in the 12th round and not in the previous 11?

Now I’m willing to accept that his personal issues with his wife could have affected his camp. But I don’t believe for a second that they prevented him from letting his hands go when he was face to face with Tyson in the ring. Banks was telling him to change his tactics and to let his hands go, yet he could only do it for a very brief period right at the end of the fight. That was nothing to do with his personal issues IMHO. It was a mental blockage. He’d never met anyone with Tyson’s speed, size, skills and confidence before, and he couldn’t cope with it psychologically.

Saying that Tyson ducked a rematch is also silly. We’re talking here about a guy who went to Detroit on his own in order to train with Wlad’s mentor. We’re talking about a guy who did a complete psyche job on Wlad before beating him in Germany. We’re talking about a guy who came back from the brink of suicide to lose an enormous amount of weight after over 3 years of activity, before having a few tune ups and then fighting one of the most dangerous and unpredictable fighters in the world. We’re talking about a guy who then rematched Wilder after almost being knocked out. We’re talking about a guy who is about to fight AJ and who has a supreme level of confidence and drive.

It is illogical to think that that same guy feared fighting Wlad in Manchester, when he’d just beaten him in Germany, before then doing everything that I’ve just mentioned above. Think about it. If he really feared a guy who he’d already beaten, why on earth would he have lost a hundred plus pounds and then chased down fights with Wilder and AJ? A man of that character who feared Wlad wouldn’t have been able to have done any of those things. A guy who feared rematching Wlad, would still be an obese couch potato who’d never have come back into the sport. A man of that character would be at home with his family, living a comfortable life with what he’d earnt from the sport. Personally, I think it’s ignorant to think that he genuinely went off the rails due to him ducking and fearing Wlad. I think it’s ignorant and illogical. It’s just not in his mental make up.

Tyson went off the rails because he has various mental health issues. He went through a period where he couldn’t even spend time with his own children. So are we really supposed to believe that the fear of losing to Wlad contributed to that severe mental state? Seriously? I think that’s absolutely ridiculous. If Tyson had’ve fought somebody else, then you may have had a case. But when a fighter nearly kills himself due to drink, drugs and depression, it doesn’t constitute as ducking someone.

Any prime version of Wlad would have had huge issues with everything that Tyson brought to the ring. And especially as his own mentor thought so highly of him and told Wlad that he’d be the next great fighter of the division.

The pre-prime vulnerable versions of Wlad who lost to Sanders and Purrity would have been far more dangerous to Fury. Because those versions of Wlad would have been much more aggressive and much less respectful of him.

 

The current version of Fury is the best version of Fury we’ve seen. He’s physically and mentally at 100%, with more variation in his arsenal.

His last fight was when he stopped Wilder.

He wasn’t getting beaten up by Wallin, he just had to dig deep after suffering a very bad cut.

 

I think you're trying to say he let them go vs Joshua. He ad-libbed with the flying hooks and hands low so Joshua couldn't read him. He adapted unlike vs Fury where he couldn't control the distance like he had for 9 straight years. Was very unlucky not to stop Joshua.

 

What would he have done differently though?

The fact that Wlad could let his hands go against Joshua a few years later, tells us that it was Tyson specifically who prevented him from doing so when they met.

 

How’s it going mate?

Wlad was always cautious, even during his long reign.

I think that Tyson’s attributes would always have been problematic.

 

Both Wlad and Haye vowed to knock each other out. Yet when the fight came, they were both extremely cautious.

 

I don’t think the version of Wlad who fought AJ would ever have shown up against Tyson.

 

Tyson is the specific reason why Wlad couldn’t let his hands go.

It wasn’t a physical issue, it was a psychological one.

A prime version of Wlad would have been just as cautious against Tyson.

He couldn’t let his hands go against Tyson, yet he could against Pulev beforehand and AJ a few years afterwards.

That speaks volumes.

 

Great post.

 

I understand your point. But then you have to ask why Wlad couldn’t do this in the previous 11 rounds.

Saying something and doing it are two completely different things.

He told us all that he was going to knock out David Haye after he disrespected his family.

Yet he didn’t even try and put his foot on the peddle, even when he had Haye trapped against the ropes.

Look how he fought Povetkin.

The guy has a mental blockage.

 

As we saw with Lewis, Joshua with Ruiz for example, rematches can be completely different.
MMA fighters also prove this. Just look how the first fight with McGregor against Poirier was, and how the second went.
There was a reason Fury run 2x times from the rematch, and he run against 40 years old Klitschko. I think that tells you the whole story.
Fury doesn`t have a chance against any version of Wlad with Manny Steward.
This was the main Wlad downfall + he hired that i******* Banks.
Anyway i wanna see how Fury will even look not at 40 years old, but at 35-36. He will be a shadow of himself for sure.