Fury's cardio condition is ridiculous.

Fury does have good endurance meaning he can just keep going but his stamina meaning the ability to go hard for an extended period of time isn't so good which is why he's never been a high volume fighter and why when he raised his work rate in the middle rounds in the first fight, after losing the early rounds to Usyk, he faded in the later rounds. Fury could probably do 20 rounds fighting at a comfortable pace but if you force him to raise that tempo above his usual work rate he quickly red lines and fades.

So while Fury does have impressive endurance, he's no Vitali Klitchko, who has both endurance and stamina meaning he can not only fight well above 12 rounds easily, he can also do it at a high work rate and when needed can raise the tempo and sustain it and recover without fading. A important measurement of good stamina is how quickly you can recover and then go hard again. Fury doesn't have the element to his game.

Fury could probably run a marathon if he so desired but I doubt he would get a good time. Many people can just keep running because it's more mental than physical, hence why you have obese people run 50 mile plus ultra marathons. Ask them to do a sub 4 hr marathon though, they'd hit the wall and stop before they would complete it. It's two different types of fitness.

 

"So while Fury does have impressive endurance, he's no Vitali"

I don't know, Vitali threw more punches but Fury moved more. Moving your feet, head and body puts pressure on the engine and you're not going to be in range to throw as many if you're frequently looking to move out of range. Fury is a fair bit heavier than Vitali, yet threw something like 850 punches (Compubox) in the first Chisora fight. I also never saw Fury gas out as badly as Vitali did vs Byrd.

 

Fury still had to pace himself though.

If he showed up at 252 lbs instead of 275 lbs, he could have potentially won the fight.

 

He came beyond serious in the rematch.
You can see it in his eyes and every move he does in the ring.

It truly shows how great Usyk is for handling it, backing him off, and beating him.

 

Outstanding post.

 

If he came in at 252, he might have had more success, but he would have been knocked out. There's a reason he came in so heavy: he needed to increase his punch resistance because he felt Usyk's accuracy and power in the first round of fight 1.

 

Yeah, it's always been exceptional. He probably has a larger than average heart for his size or something like that anatomically, like that racehorse.

It's also partly why he won the Wlad fight because Wlad in his own words was convinced Fury couldn't move like that for 12 rounds and was waiting for him to slow. Also why Wlad tried to cheat and slow him down with the spongy canvas. Wlad, the ultimate fake gentleman.

I doubt fatness increases his punch resistance, just makes him easier to hit. Draining weight for the weigh in can lower punch resistance because the brain is affected but Fury is a HW. Fury took every punch in the first fight except that massive LH that turned his head, it was a special punch.

 

And Fury was recipient of a ton of body work

 

Fury does have naturally good stamina, but he also knows how to pace himself to avoid tiring out in the later rounds. It's not like he's throwing non-stop Calzaghe punches for twelve rounds at a blistering pace, or indeed as Usyk himself used to do when he was a bit younger. He also isn't naturally explosive, or puts much into his shots, so he's less likely to gas himself out the way someone like Joshua or Dubois does.

 

Why would he have been knocked out?

The lighter the weight, the more mobility he’d have had.

He should have got himself in great shape.

Really great shape.

So he could have been faster with more stamina.

Adding weight to maul him on the inside was a mistake.

 

I think Vitali had great stamina but huge part of it was him throwing mostly arm punches. When he really tried to take his opponent out he was gasping for air really, really bad (Sanders fight, round 8).

I think both Vitali and Fury had remarkable stamina for such huge guys (certainly much better than Lewis, Wlad or AJ), but not as good as Bowe who could throw bunches of punches with bad intentions and still had incredible work rate in the late rounds in his prime

 

Simple. Punch resistance. It's nigh on impossible to knock someone out with a 55-60 pound weight difference, and Usyk had the accuracy to catch him CLEAN in both fights.
IMO it's pretty clear that Fury was fighting to go the distance.
I agree that it's pretty clear his best rout to victory was coming in just as light, but he had to hedge his bets because if he got floored or knocked out, his legacy was demolished and paydays gone.
So risk reward he came in heavy and tried to be really negative. That's how I saw it.

Mind you, I favored Usyk 60-40 even if Fury fought the perfect fight, and that path would have significantly increased Fury's chance of losing by knockout.

 

Boar meat is a miracle food.

 

I agree 100%. Although I’m not a fan of him or his ugly style, his gas tank is amazing for man that size. Especially considering the fact that he’s not even all that disciplined.