I personally had Fury as the favourite so hard to say cherry pick in that sense. But it is not in any way revisionist to say that Fury still wasn't viewed as having shaken off all rust, so already then it was clear that Fury would be an even more dangerous opponent with a couple of more fights under his belt. But even that Fury was levels above all Wilder's challengers bar Ortiz, so he hardly stuck out as a cherry pick.
A lot of people were also worried that he wasn’t ready for the rematch. To me, the simple fact that Wilder wanted the immadiate rematch and will probably go for the 3rd fight now after the beating he took in the rematch show that all this “cherrypick” talk about Fury is outright stupid.
If you're Finkel / Haymon it makes perfect sense. Big name on Wilder's record plus the Lineal Title, notional though it is. They sit down with Fast Eddie and it's a 50/50 split on everything right down to the last hamburger concession. The re-match had to happen following a drawn decision, even though it was a shocker. The third fight is the only option for big money Wilder has.
Defo cherrypick went wrong. 9 times out of ten its a good business decision from finkel and haymon. Fury had abused his body badly. He should have never been able to come back so well. He looked poor in his comeback fights against poor opposition. Add to that everyone thought fury couldn,t punch. Fury was picked as was ortiz. They we,re at the level they had to start picking real names. So they take a 40 year old shorter reached fighter just how they like with ortiz. And thought fury was a safe bet but a decent name. Tbh fury should have been a safebet. Still quite amazing how fury managed to turn it round. Almost genius from finkel and haymon but sometimes you could make all the right moves and still lose by almost a freak occurance. Thats pretty much what happened.
yes. fury was viewed as a light punching big target far removed from his wlad win. cherry pick gone wrong
No, but I wouldn't necessarily say that version of Fury was levels above Ortiz in the first fight against Wilder. One level, sure.
That’s not what a cherry pick is , it’s when the other guy assumes the opponent is not going to be ready. Warren called Finkle and said Fury was not ready and looking for a pay day. After the first fight back it was well set up to entice team Wilder because they know they pay attention to how fighters look ,it’s why they made certain fights . These guys are literally the definition of carefully selecting opponents.
Tyson Fury was rated as the RING WORLD CHAMPION in its ratings when 2018 began. They stripped him of the "Ring Championship" due to inactivity just a matter of months before he announced the first of three fights he had that year, which culminated in fighting Deontay Wilder to a draw. Fury was rated the #1 RING contender when 2018 ended. He remained in that spot until he regained the RING championship when he defeated Wilder in their rematch (they being the top two contenders). Fury is now the RING champion for a second time, despite never having officially lost. There have been no "cherry picks" in this trilogy. Wilder and Fury were rated among the top heavyweights in the world before and after all their fights. If Ring hadn't dropped Fury as their champ the same year he fought THREE TIMES, no one would even be mentioning it. In fact, years from now, new fans are going to wonder how the hell Fury lost his title in 2018, since he started the year as the World Champ, fought three times, never lost, yet finished the year as the #1 contender.
Had Finkle not been told Fury wasn’t ready , Wilder would have stayed away from the fight and went for the big money against AJ but the cherry pick backfired and caused a rift in Wilders resume while he thought he would add Fury on his win list but instead out smarted himself.
