Ironically, if Wilder KOs him, it will be a rare example of a rubber match that leaves the public more confused about the fighters' merits than it would have been after 2 fights.
Also, on the video: Notice the way that Fury couches it. Fury, himself, is a badass old school fighter just like Ali, Foreman, and Frazier. So naturally, all the modern heavyweights (except Tyson Fury!) lose to Ali, Frazier, Foreman, etc. It's a roundabout way of launching into his sales patter and disparaging Joshua and Wilder, from a guy with well-nigh Ali level reality distortion. That's not to say he's wrong, mind you.
Fury is an old school fighter. His style is like something out of the 1930s. His manner of training, and indeed his mindset, seem to be a bit of a throwback. At the same time, he is the ultimate extrapolation, of the modern superheavyweight. The man is a walking paradox.
You know, I never cared for Fury either as a fighter or a person...but the respect he shows the great fighters of old nearly has me changing my mind about him. This is the first time I saw any semblance of class from him. That said, I still hope Deontay knocks him TFO...though I sadly don't think that will happen
And possibly even earlier than the 1930's. Incidently, I watched Fury - Wilder 2, after I had a much younger family member turn off the sound and color, and fuzz up the picture some. That viewing was quite revealing ... IMHO, of course.
Look at Fury's technique, or any of his tribe for that matter. They are essentially old school fighters, in the body's of modern superheavyweights.
For all the sh1t heaped on Anthony Joshua, he was consistently fighting, and bating men ranked in the top ten by Ring Magazine! I never saw Fury or Wilder do that, unless they absolutely had to!
Well, I'm guessing Fury absolutely had to have his title shot then, given that the first Ring-Rated opponent he faced was Wlad; a fight for the Lineal Championship, which he won. He was out for two to three years, after that, and then his next Ring-Rated opponent was Wilder, then Wilder again - and it will be Wilder, yet again. Either way, by this weekend it will have been 4 bouts over a 6-year elapsed time, involving a Lineal Champion and a Ring Top-3 opponent in the other three of those matches. However, if you deduct the 2.5 years Fury was inactive, that's effectively 4 Ring-Rated opponents in the 3.5 active years, from his first title shot to present day. Joshua won his first title several months after the IBF had almost immediately stripped Fury of the belt and matched the mandatory challenger, Vyacheslav Glazkov, with Charles Martin. So, this bout for the vacant strap was a bit of a debacle and Martin won on a technicality. Martin was the very definition of a paper champion and he was a perfect 'in' for Joshua, who would become a belt-holder, without having had to fight a Ring-Rated opponent. In the 5.5 active years since winning his first strap and to the best of my knowledge, Joshua has gone 5-1 against Ring-Rated opposition. One of those opponents had only earned their rating on the strength of having beaten Joshua himself (Ruiz Jr), which elicited the need for the rematch. All things considered, I don't see much difference between Joshua's rate of Ring-Rated opponents and that of Fury's.
