Gypsy King Meets Heavyweight King: Fury vs. Klitschko

Love him or hate him, you have to admit that heavyweight Tyson Fury is entertaining, Whether it’s entering a press conference dressed up as Batman, serenading an audience after a fight or running his mouth off like he so often does, its entertaining.

And that is a word you can’t use to describe the Champion, Wladimir Klitschko as he and Fury prepare to clash tonight at Esprit Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany.

However, in the boxing business it is not all about the rhetoric before a fight or the entertainment value alone, everything is forgotten as soon as the first bell sounds out.

Most people I have either spoken to or read the comments of have almost completely written Fury off, No way he is winning; can’t, won’t…couple of rounds tops and it’s over.

I, for one, think Fury brings something different to the table tonight in Dusseldorf.

When was the last time anyone got excited about a Wladimir Klitschko fight? For me, it was against David Haye back in 2011, which turned out to be a horrendously boring fight, broken toe or not.

What Haye and so many others could not do, was close the distance and get on the inside as Wladimir has a very effective technique of doing what he needs to do, i.e. throwing his shot/shots and grabbing hold, and he does this without penalty from the referee.

After he lost and was knocked out early on in his career, Klitschko became incredibly cautious, rarely trading shots, never doing anything other than exactly what he needed to do, which becomes boring and tedious for the viewer but racks up the wins.

A great deal of Klitschko’s opponents have been smaller than him though, which makes it easier for him to utilise his “jab and grab” technique.

Fury is three inches taller than Klitschko and has a four inch longer reach; Tyson is the bigger man, which is going to make “jab and grab” harder for Wladimir.

As the bigger man though, surprisingly, he isn’t a stagnant fighter, he has pretty decent footwork, and can switch to a southpaw stance for a bit of switch-hitting.

They both have a similar KO ratio, with Wlad at 79% and Fury at 75%; however Wladimir has fought much better opposition and is far more experienced.

Both have been knocked down before, but this is heavyweight boxing, so you can’t call one or the other chinny as such, even though when Fury was last down it was against a blown up cruiserweight in Steve Cunningham.

I do, however, think that nearly all of Wladimir’s opponents say the same thing before the fight, that he is one dimensional, he does the same “jab and grab” technique, he has been knocked out before, that they will be too fast for him.

Seeing this and saying it is one thing but executing it when they are in the ring with him is a different task entirely.

Wladimir is exceptional at what he does, only three of the 64 opponents he has faced in the ring have beaten him and the last time he lost was in 2004. Fury is undefeated, but has only had 24 fights – the gulf in experience is vast.

I wouldn’t call this fight a foregone conclusion though, the edge in experience goes to Wladimir but Fury beats him in footwork, their power is similar and Fury is the bigger man.

On a personal note I would love to see Fury win because I think he is good for boxing and he is a more exciting fighter than Klitschko. It is not impossible; it is however, improbable as Wladimir will come in with his game plan and stick to it, he won’t get drawn into a shootout and will most likely go the distance, beating Fury on the scorecards.