Fury’s path to his LA title showdown
TYSON Fury challenges WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder on Saturday at Los Angeles’ Staples Center in a fight that is dividing opinion.
The Manchester fighter is facing his most explosive opponent just 14 rounds into a comeback that follows an absence of over two-and-a-half years.
Here, M.E.N. Sport revisits three of the fights that established each of the undefeated fighters among the world’s leading heavyweights.
FURY V WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO, DUSSELDORF, NOVEMBER 2015 KLITSCHKO was a significant favourite, having been undefeated for 11 years in establishing himself as the finest heavyweight of his era. Fury demonstrated remarkable intelligence and composure to outbox a great champion in Germany, which had become Klitschko’s adopted home, to win the IBF, WBA and WBO titles.
FURY V STEVE CUNNINGHAM, NEW YORK, APRIL 2013 FIGHTING at Madison Square Garden against a proven, former world cruiserweight champion, Fury responded to a second-round knockdown – only the second of his career – by stopping the American in the seventh. It showed Fury’s powers of recovery, and that he can adapt against a world-class fighter, away from home, on a high-profile occasion.
FURY V JOHN MCDERMOTT, BRENTWOOD, SEPTEMBER 2011 THE experienced and underappreciated McDermott is still widely considered unfortunate not to have been judged the winner after 10 rounds in which he largely outfought Fury, who instead benefitted from a controversial decision. Fury learnt to instead use his size and abilities which have become such a strength, and in the rematch secured a convincing stoppage.
WILDER V LUIS ORTIZ, NEW YORK, MARCH 2018 CUBA’S awkward Ortiz was the most avoided fighter in the division, before the American made the seventh successful defence of his WBC title. On the brink of being stopped on his feet when saved by the bell at the end of the seventh, he responded to win in the 10th.
WILDER V BERMANE STIVERNE, LAS VEGAS, JANUARY 2015 THE American had never previously fought beyond four rounds on the night he first challenged for a world title, and was therefore considered largely unproven. Even if he went the distance for the first time in outpointing the defending champion over 12 rounds – crucial to his development and experience – he justified the excitement that had been building around him by winning at that level and has since impressed on that stage.
WILDER V ARTUR SZPILKA, NEW YORK, JANUARY 2016 PERHAPS the fight that demonstrates the two ways in which Saturday’s is likeliest to go. Wilder struggled with the head movement and southpaw stance of Poland’s little-known Szpilka until finding a devastating knockout in the ninth round, and in front of Fury, who that night was ringside.
Both fighters are capable of using their experiences that night – Fury by observing where Szpilka succeeded, and Wilder through how he overcame his approach.
Fury joining Wilder in the ring afterwards also did much to lay the foundations for Saturday’s fight.