How do you rank big (6'5'' and taller) heavyweights inside fighting skills? Were would you rank Fury's one among them? As we saw yesterday, Deontay Wilder has zero inside fighting skills - no short punches whatsoever, no body punches, no clinching/holding skills at all. Anthony Joshua has pretty good inside fighting skills with all that short hooks, uppercuts and punches to the body, but he looks like a complete novice in the clinches - he still doesn't know how to hold his opponent properly without getting hit by him. Vitali Klitschko's inside game was a mistery - he fought almost exlusevely on the long distance for all his career while could throw occasional uppercuts here and there. Wladimir Klitschko's inside fighting skills was poor if we are talking about punches - no uppercuts, no body punches. But he was excellent at holding/clinching. I'd say he and Lennox Lewis were two best HWs ever at this part of the game. Lennox Lewis' had very good inside fighting skills - he had great uppercuts, could throw good short right hooks (see Michael Grant fight), and was excellent, very effective at clinching/holding. The only part of his inside game that wasn't that good was body punching. Riddick Bowe, IMO, had the best inside fighting skills among all the big heavyweight - absolutely brilliant. Even Lewis, who was good inside fighter, couldn't outfight old Holyfield there and had to hold him every time Evander got closer. Bowe outfought prime Holyfield on Evander's best distance. Bowe's uppercuts, short hooks, combos and body punches - everything of it was on the absolutely highest level. Now, Tyson Fury... I think he has great inside fighting skills and is good in all parts of it - short hooks, uppercuts, body punches, mauling, holding/clinching. I would put him on the second place after Riddick Bowe if we are talking about inside game among big heavyweight.
The more i see of fury and rewatch Lennox fights, the more I realise just how flawed and limited the Klitschko brothers truly were
I don't think just holding and clinching constitutes as inside fighting. Wlad held as a substitute for having zero inside game. Lewis clinched a lot but fought on the inside pretty well. There was moments against Tyson where he was purely clinching and leaning. I wouldn't call that inside fighting. Id include Povetkin on the list too. He's pretty good in close.
Both Fury and Wilder look so cumbersome on the inside, they've got the wingspan of a fcuking Condor so it's of no surprise really.
You have the point, but clinches is part of inside game. Dirty, unwatchable? Yes, but still. And I wrote here Wlad had no inside game except of clinching/holding while Lennox had. As for Povetkin - he is excellent inside fighter but a small one. And I was talking about big heavyweights
As long as you are fighting out of the clinch , but its not inside fighting if you're just clinching , leaning and bear hugging. Its also illegal to repeatably hold and back hump your opponent.
You pretty much summed it up. Vitali's inside skills were a mystery, because he had some of the best foot work of the lot of them, I mean how many out box Lewis from the outside? So it was very hard to ever get up close to him, because he was always moving laterally and used that bait and counter style which made it hard to gauge range against him.
There's no mystery. Vitali had no inside game whatsoever. His long range style of punching up from the wait doesn't work in close. He needs space to be effective.
Bowe was the greatest big man inside fighter but it cost him his health. He didn't need to trade so close with Holyfield when he was a lot taller. Fury was wrestling a lot today, Bowe never did that.
