For a good chunk of the marbles!
This is the big one. Tomorrow night on Showtime PPV the lineal heavyweight championship of the world is on the line. Though he doesn’t have a belt, controversial British heavyweight Tyson Fury (27-0, 19 KOs) is the man who beat the man who beat the man who beat the man, etc. Deontay Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) is also bringing the WBC belt to the dance, the only world title that British megastar Anthony Joshua doesn’t have. Not only will the winner have had his hand raised in a megafight in its own right here, but the victor will also have a potentially crazy lucrative fight with Joshua to set up for later in the year as well. It doesn’t get much more important than this one right here.
WBC titleholder Deontay Wilder has had sort of a cinderella story of a career when you really think about it. The now 33 year old emerged out of absolute no where when he qualified for the US Olympic team in 2008 at heavyweight. Nothing was expected of the relative novice to the sport at those games either, but yet he netted a most improbable bronze medal. Being the only American at the games to medal and a heavyweight to boot made him a marketable figure from day one. His handlers could have capitalized on this and moved him quickly, but instead they intelligently moved the super raw then 23 year old at a snail’s pace. Despite his 6’7″ frame and 83″ reach, Deontay barely fought at over the cruiserweight limit. He needed to put on weight and learn how to actually box.
Did either of those things happen? Sort of. Deontay gained considerable weight from his 207 lb pro debut over the course of his career, peaking at 229 lbs, but he was surprisingly back down to 214 lbs when he took on the biggest test of his career against long avoided Cuban contender Luis Ortiz earlier this year. As for the skill, it is a mixed bag. As much as his detractors don’t like to admit it, Wilder has shown stretches of boxing skill. When he first won his belt against Bermane Stiverne in 2015, Deontay chose to use his boxing ability to stay on the outside and use his length to safely point his way to a decision. It was a conservative gameplan in his first step up. Wilder was able to use boxing skill to execute. He also regularly uses feints to keep his opponents off balance and likes to launch merciless counters with his destructive back hand. He also throws windmills like he is trying to single handedly end climate change sometimes, especially when he has his opponent hurt. The Alabama natives technical ability is better than he gets credit for, but it also does go out the window in slapstick style at some point in basically every fight.
He held it together pretty well in his most recent fight against “King Kong” Luis Ortiz though. Yet, even in a largely technically responsible posture, Wilder was getting outboxed in the first third of that fight. Ortiz was conservative and forced Wilder to lead. It was easy for the Cuban amateur boxing program product to counter him. The problem with outboxing Deontay Wilder, however, is that you have to be perfect for thirty six minutes. The skinny heavyweight carries a weapon of mass destruction in his right hand. One shot in the fifth was all it took to put Ortiz on ice skates and down. Luis came back to hurt Deontay and have him teetering on the edge himself a couple rounds later, but Wilder still ended up nuking him in the tenth.
The problem I see here is that Tyson “The Gypsy King” Fury is a much more slick boxer than King Kong. Tyson Fury is very, very difficult to hit clean. Everyone can be hit, of course, and I’m not saying Tyson is some sort of Mayweather or Sweet Pea style defensive virtuoso. A light hitting cruiserweight in Steve Cunningham once dropped him hard even. It is just that it takes a really calculated, well timed, and almost thoughtful shot to hit him flush. He’s slippery in there with surprisingly agile foot movement and really excellent rotation of his upper body. The type of boxing that Ortiz brought Deontay was to stalk and counter. Tyson Fury is going to slip and move. Is Wilder technical enough to find him? I have my doubts, but it is a good thing for the American that he never needs to land very many.
Of course, this is all assuming that Tyson Fury is in fact still the Tyson Fury we remember. He’s had an interesting few years to say the least. When the British heavyweight challenged long reigning and utterly dominant heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in 2015, his best win was probably against either the aforementioned Cunningham or a solid regional opponent in Derek Chisora. He wasn’t viewed as all that different than any number of Klitschko opponents had been. Yet, Wladimir couldn’t hit him. To be honest Tyson barely landed any scoring blows either, but his little bit trumped the next to nothing landing in return. In the end he shockingly had his hand raised and became the king of the world.
What followed is well document and personal, but I will touch on the basics. Tyson Fury had a mental breakdown and ballooned way up in weight. His scheduled rematch with Klitschko was postponed a couple times until it was finally canceled when it became clear that Tyson Fury was not fit to compete in the sport. He was behaving erratically and worringly to those around him. Depression is a real beast and it had The Gypsy King in its claws. For a while, it looked like he was done with the sport forever.
He did return earlier this year, however, and has fought two low level fights while working his weight back down. Tyson has also said all the right things about how he feels mentally going into the fight. Yet, I do think it is fair to wonder how he is going to deal with adversity in the ring at this point. I also believe it reasonable to wonder whether he can provide the mental strength and concentration to neutralize Wilder’s right hand for 36 minutes.
That is what makes this fight interesting as an idea. Tyson Fury is entirely capable of neutralizing and outpointing Wilder while the WBC titleholder is entirely capable of destroying any heavyweight with a right hand at any time. Trying to project how it will play out is half the fun in this one. Unfortunately, however, my one concern here is that it won’t be a super compelling fight to watch. If Tyson is back at the top of his powers, Deontay isn’t going to be able to get much going offensively. The charismatic Brit outside of the ring could very well bore and disappoint us inside the ropes if he has his way. At least we’d have the threat of one giant right hand the whole way though if that does happen.
The PPV begins at 9 PM Eastern and will be produced by Showtime. It is being priced at $74.99 which is pretty ridiculous, but sadly par for the course these days at the same time. It is not really an option to miss this one though, for better or worse.
