Tyson Fury

Fury both just announced his retirement and stated he's the H2H GOAT.

 

Forget Usyk, there is one more big fight on the horizon that Fury needs to attend to before calling it quits:-

This content is protected

 

In all fairness, I respect Cunningham a lot, and the Wallin fight is already aging well. Chisora was also undefeated the first time Fury beat him.

Hammer and Johnson were contenders when Fury beat them...unfortunately they degenerated fast and hard.

Schwarz is now being trained by Joan Pablo Hernandez. I wish that wifebeater nothing good, but realistically, he could make something of himself yet.

Pianeta and Rogan are former somebodies.

His record it thin, but so are that of Dempsey, Patterson, Liston...even Foreman to an extent.

I hope he comes back in a couple if years when the division is doing better. Maybe Joshua will be rejuvenated and they can do their fight.

 

I disagree on a couple fronts:

1) Every great fighter has physical attributes. It may be height and reach or fast hands or punching power or a great chin or great reflexes or any combination of these and more. You take away any great fighter’s best attributes and they are no longer so great.

2) How many times do we hear that boxing is 90 percent mental? Well Fury himself may be 100 percent mental, if you know what I mean, but he dominates the mental game with pretty much every opponent. He freaked out Wlad with his antics right up to the afternoon of the fight (making them change the padding, not to mention his Batman press conference). He got in Wilder’s head in a number of ways. Whyte likes to get all full of bluster and Tyson played nice with him and deflated him. He has a knack for it, just like Muhammad Ali did (in a different way).

3) He’s a matchup nightmare. Freakishly tall, long arms. He has shown he can get use his footwork to dictate the geometry of a fight. He can brawl and fight dirty on the inside. He can sit down and generate real power. He has shown tremendous recovery powers when hit by the hardest puncher in the game today, and far more than once. He has a lot of tools in his toolbox and he can adjust his game plan and execute — he’s far from a one-trick pony. It’s exhausting to fight a guy as large and physical as Fury is — you’re almost never out of range, can’t take a break because you take one step back and he can still reach you.

Am I saying he’s the greatest of all time? No. But you are selling him far short as if he’s just a tall guy and that’s it — we’ve seen plenty of tall guys who haven’t proven as good or as durable or as adaptable as Fury.

 

I’ve only seen HLs so far - looked like a colour by numbers execution against an appreciably smaller, none too skilled opponent.

The uppercut was always going to be the weapon of choice by default in respect of height difference and more specifically in respect of Whyte’s proven susceptibility to same. 3 KO losses by way of the uppercut - could there not have been some tactical mitigation of Whyte’s vulnerability to same?

I won’t denounce the power of the shot, Tyson’s a big guy - but the punch wasn’t flush, somewhere between that and a grazing shot - it did jolt the head.

But that was an almighty push after the punch - though upon arising, Whyte was done. Some observers claim that Whyte was already beginning to gas - appalling.

Anyway, I like Fury the man, good luck to him. Among other career fights, there was a lot of wear and tear in the Wilder trilogy which will unpack on him in the not too distant future - particularly against more challenging opp. than Whyte. -

Good time to get out. Fury has obviously talked about it previously and sees the rationale in it now - reversing on it in the future might not be so wise and at the least represent compromised commitment.

 

Won the title against an old Wlad. Beat the third- or fourth-best guy of the era after Wlad. In terms of resume, he's a slight improvement on Michael Spinks right now. Could definitely improve with time. He left a mess when he refused to rematch Wlad and then left boxing for a while. It was short enough that he arguably remained champion...but also arguably not. The lineal title supposedly disappears with enough inactivity, which is why Ali's title didn't count historically during his exile.

 

He'd play with Foreman like a raggedy Ann doll, that is one no I am not kidding about.

 

Weird, JD held the title hostage for three years. Suppose the circumstances differ.

 

I agree I think my analysis was pretty lame. I didn't even consider the psychological aspect of Fury's game which is something I cannot deny, and I agree, you're absolutely right about Fury's recovery being remarkable. I have to agree with your assessment almost entirely to be honest, everything you noted are things I did not consider or left out. I disagree that Fury is a very technical fighter. But it is hard to argue if Fury doesn't face a technically great fighter, that he himself can be a technically great fighter. Wlad of course was a good win but he was faded at 39 years old. And Fury can only be judged against the men he fought and none of them have been of equivalence in terms of skill in my opinion. But if Fury is some skilled behemoth of a boxer, with many tools in his belt, the fights with Wilder should have looked much, much different. I don't buy into the hype behind Wilder, and it's weird to see his detractors call him unskilled and sloppy, only a power puncher. But he pieced Fury up, where was Fury's evasiveness? His stamina? Yes he got off the canvas after some earth shattering knockdowns, but I just can't really view Fury as anything special if he retires now with his terrible performances against Wilder.

When I mentioned Fury's size I didn't mean to imply that if it were taken away he would not be as good a fighter, I agree if we take away any notable fighters strongest attributes they will of course be lesser regardless of who it is. I just feel that Fury is right now is not a fighter who if it weren't for his size would not be of note because of his abysmal resume.

 

Yeah. Fitzsimmons held onto it a while as well. As did Corbett, Sullivan, and a couple others. Mostly early ones. I think things became more standardized post-Louis.

 

This is a really extreme opinion.

Not even anle to FIGHT-as in be competitive-with those guys? Even Schmelling?!

Everyone else sees much technical skill in Fury-& describe it in some details- I really do not see how you believe otherwise.

 

It really was the wild west, contender networks must've been nightmarish as would regulation and management. Best didn't rise to the top I reckon, maybe just the most lucky with the right amount of persistence.

 

Ha, so true. Jeffries was an improvement but how could he not be? Kudos to the busy little Canadian Beaver, Tommy Burns - quite a few defences punctuated by his being the first to grant a black HW a shot at the title. It’s crazy how the likes of Corbett, Fitz etc. could make so much $$$ from theatrical engagements, as HW Champs, as to make their actually defending the title and upholding their money making status a low priority.

When you read what they actually did on stage you realise folks were prone to blowing their money as much back then as they do now. Re-enactments of previous career KOs? - I guess they didn’t have the advantage of slow mo replays back then.

LOL, some of the “sparring” partners would also turn up half or full tanked - knock ‘em over with a feather. Fitz was even up on temporary murder/manslaughter charges when an inebriated on stage opponent, already impaired, fell from an innocent punch and unfortunately died shortly afterward.

 

I already walked back that the analysis is poor, yes I think Fury would be competitive with those guys, I misspoke.

 

Whoa! No one puts Big Baby George in a corner - unless you’re using a forklift. Look for Foreman’s walking hook to settle matters and chalk another one up for the old school.