BBN writer Anish Parekh offered his unique take on the forthcoming Wilder vs Fury fight
When Fury defeated the legendary Wladimir Klitschko, it was one of the all-time great British performances. But despite out-boxing the dominant champion and master technician in hostile territory, it is still a criminally underrated achievement.
Few expected Fury to win that title-bout, but he bewitched Klitscko, leaving him in a state of confusion as he slipped feinted, switched, jabbed and countered his esteemed opponent. Dr Steelhammer had no remedy and froze to the point where he rarely threw a punch, let alone landed one.
Since then much has changed, Fury has suffered with his well-documented struggles with mental health and took two and a half years out of the ring, surrendering his titles due to that inactivity. He was depressed, far beyond his fighting weight and abusing his body with drugs and alcohol.
This year his comeback to the ring has been remarkable, even if his opponents were anything but. Shedding 130lbs and successfully battling his demons to get back in the position to challenge WBC champion Deontay Wilder for a world title again is a victory in itself for the self-proclaimed 'Gypsy King'.
I'm sure that the Fury that dethroned Klitschko would have outpointed the unrefined Wilder en-route to a clear unanimous points win. The footwork, reach, size and most importantly stamina would have been just too much for Alabama native.
However, three years on from that jubilant night in Dusseldorf, what are the effects of the tribulations that Fury has faced? His weight loss and body transformation this year has been beyond incredible, but the hard grind of continuous training may have sapped the energy and freshness required to perform to his best ability on fight-night. Having not been in a significant fight in three years, how would Fury's punch resistance be, particularly against perhaps the single hardest puncher in the world? Will his reflexes and instincts still be sharp and responsive? They certainly would need to be against the dangerous, unpredictable Wilder.
'The Bronze Bomber' on the other hand is coming off a career-best victory, battling through some adverse moments to defeat tricky southpaw Luis Ortiz. He survived a turbulent seventh-round, showing grit and guts as Ortiz was on the brink of claiming the world title, only to turn the tide and knock out the crafty Cuban with a crunching uppercut in round 10.
Wilder is unorthodox and ungainly at times, but his 39 knockouts from 40 victories signify that his style is both effective and devastating.
For Wilder to detonate one of his bombs, he often flicks out a jab, whilst cocking back his right hand beyond his shoulder and catapults it into his opponent. Such awkwardness in his technique should make the tactic easy to read, but Wilder's explosive speed and athleticism makes up for these shortcomings. Fury can overcome this by fighting on the inside, getting close to Wilder, roughing him up, clinching and pounding his lean frame whilst restricting him of the space he needs to throw his wild power-punches, but that is something that he hasn't done in quite some time, opting to box out of range in awkward fashion to frutrate his foes.
This will be a fascinating contest and much of that is to do with Fury attempting to yet again achieve the improbable. I'm a big fan of Fury but feel this fight has come a little too soon. The years out of the ring and abuse his body has endured will catch up to him in the later rounds. The former Lineal champion will at least score a moral victory, having moments of success and possibly leading on the scorecards, but the combination of exhaustion followed by Wilder's booming bombs will be instrumental in delivering a stoppage for the brash American as he retains his WBC title.
However, I would be glad to be proven wrong, as if Fury were to triumph, it would provide a magnificent chapter to a sport renowned for authoring so many inspirational stories – and an achievement simply too great not to rate highly.
Follow Anish @theboxingfanman