I think Fury is turning up like he did in Wilder 2.

Fury post fight if he wins: "I have to give credit to Francis for pushing me to be better"

 

It's an analysis I broadly agree with, my man, in that Fury will have to make it a dog fight. And he has shown he can do that before. Though I think this fight has come to late for him, physically.
I don't agree with the sentiment that an in form Fury tears Usyk apart. I think even a prime Fury has serious problems with Usyk.

 

Fury's gonna win in a foul filled jab and grab exhibition of gypsy greatness.

 

Jack Johnson would be proud

 

He won't be drained lol. Him shedding unnecessary fat and building lean muscle will not affect his resistance at all. It may even improve it.

 

He absolutely needs to be in that kind of shape to stand any chance at all.

And even if he can achieve similar levels of fitness (which will require much greater effort to achieve now), he'll still have a very tough night - especially if the signs that he's struggling to use his jab too much turn out to be the case, without that he'll struggle to do anything with his length advantage.

On top of that...
Wilder hit hard, but that's about it - extremely limited technically and in terms of ring IQ.
As much as Wilder's still horribly overrated on here, if you engage with the right tactics he had no plan B and couldn't adjust at all - his plan A was effective enough to make him a dangerous fringe contender type fighter, but that's about it.

Usyk is actually elite, which Wilder was never close to - Usyk can (and will) change it up, and has serious world class fundamentals.

Even IF Fury can re-establish that level of fitness, this is a levels more difficult fight... Way, way beyond anything he's been up against since Klitschko.

 

I don't agree with calling Wilder a fringe contender. He's a forner world champ with only two losses. Yes his resume isn't the greatest, but he still stops anyone not in the top 5.

As for Fury v Usyk... If Fury comes in light I'd actually start to favour him to win. I want Usyk to win, and for that to happen Fury has to come in heavy.

 

He's a former world champion, but his resume isn't legit contender level - his best win is an aging Ortiz, who looked slick against dross but never beat anyone serious (including Jennings).

Fringe contender is, if anything, generous - given that he lost every time he fought an actual contender... The fact it's only 3 official losses (and should be 4) is only because he refused to fight against anyone else decent.

There's a possibility that Wilder beats anyone outside the top 5, but there's also a reasonable chance that he was barely ever top 10 level. His resume doesn't put him much higher than that, and I'm reluctant to give him the benefit of the doubt considering he had a belt for several years, could easily have got fights made against top ten level fighters and consistently chose journeymen and the occasional gatekeeper instead - even had the likes of Whyte begging (and ran away) and clearly wanted no part of Povetkin once he wasn't mandated. Odds are he'd have lost to both, and he knew it - why else would he duck to knock out trash?

Or in other words, if he didn't believe he was a legit contender, why should I?

 

FFS usyk isn't some hybrid ali/tyson or a 16 stone Mayweather. He has taken many shots off lesser opponents than Fury. Bellew and chisora landed plenty

You guys need to cool the hype. He's a fantastic boxer yes, p4p better than Fury. But he isn't close to hoe he ìs portrayed on this forum..cruiserweight was an overrated division and he has 2 wins over a very athletic, but limited boxer

He is not Muhammad Ali lol

 

It’s only a few years ago Charles Martin was a former champion with only two losses.

 

I wonder when we’ll get to know who the ref is for the fight.

When Fury got the cut, I think the originally scheduled fight was about 2 weeks away (?), and they’d just released the video promo but the ref still hadn’t been announced.

 

Bit of a silly comparison. How many successful defences did Martin have?

 

While you make some fair points it doesn't negate the fact you're using "fringe contender" incorrectly. You can argue he's protected, sure, but he's still a former champion and is still a top ten contender today.

 

I consider legit contenders to have a genuine chance of winning belts against a respectable level champion (ie: not a joke champion like a Martin or Stiverne)... At very least, they'd have to be competitive to get into this bracket.

To me, a fringe contender is someone who'd only be able to win a belt if the champ had an off-day - or if they'd only have a punchers chance.

In all seriousness, Wilder is in the latter group - at no stage in his career would he have had any chance with the real champs like Klitschko, Joshua, Fury or Parker... Nor with guys that would be competitive like Povetkin, Ruiz (on one of his good days) or even Whyte.

Wilder's criminally overrated. Always was, and it seems always will be.