Since Tyson Fury’s return to boxing in 2018, his name has consistently been attached to one fellow heavyweight: Anthony Joshua. The two British world champions have a long history of trash-talking each other on social media, through interviews and in-person exchanges. After Fury’s decision victory over Arslanbek Makhmudov, Netflix announced that Fury and Joshua agreed to finally fight in December. While public opinion on the matchup generally leans towards Fury being the favorite, these fighters are at unique points in their careers; this fight is years after fans would have liked. Still, seeing them cross paths after almost a decade of speculation will be surreal.
Over the course of Fury’s career, he has earned a reputation as being nearly impossible to knock out. While he’s suffered his fair share of trips to the canvas, he always finds a way back to his feet, somehow becoming a sharper boxer after eating hard punches. Considering his 6’ 9”, 270-pound frame, Fury is impressively difficult to hit; he seamlessly mixes slips, rolls and blocks to narrowly avoid even the most extensive combinations. While Fury didn’t appear at his best against Makhmudov, he still rather easily outpointed the Russian phenom.
The key for Fury is one of the oldest adages in boxing: stick and move. When Fury is right, he is almost a textbook boxer. Fighting behind his jab, finding openings for body punches in the clinch, using footwork to cut off the ring and using his right hand sparingly. When Fury is off, he finds himself backing up under pressure, throwing sloppy punches and leaving his chin available.
At a record of 35-2-1, Fury has only been defeated by Oleksandr Usyk, who is widely recognized as the top heavyweight fighter in the world. In order to overcome Joshua, Fury needs to keep from engaging in brawling. The more technical the fight, the longer it will go. The longer the fight goes, the greater the advantage Fury has.
The embodiment of Fury’s boxing career is the 12th and final round of his first fight with power-puncher Deontay Wilder. After suffering a brutal two-punch combination sending him crashing to the floor, Fury managed to get back up before the ten-count. Normally, after a fighter gets up from a knockdown, all facets of their game worsen. In this case, Fury got up with a vengeance, outboxing Wilder in the last minutes of the fight. This and many other moments are part of why virtually no one in the boxing community is anticipating that Fury will get knocked out.
For Joshua, the uglier the fight, the better chance he has. Joshua’s right hand may not be the most powerful Fury has faced, but it is certainly capable of impacting the fight. 29 of Joshua’s 26 victories have come by knockout. Joshua most recently squared off against influencer-boxer Jake Paul in a bizarre mismatch. The far bigger Joshua had the advantage in both skill and physicality, knocking Paul out in the sixth round. Unlike Fury, Joshua has been knocked out on multiple occasions, more often than not because of lazy defense. While imperfect, Joshua’s fundamentals are still strong. As opposed to Fury, who fluctuates between long- and short-range offense, Joshua prefers to stay on the outside, throwing fewer punches, but packing power in each. Given that Fury surpasses Joshua’s height, reach and weight, Joshua may not be able to implement his usual game plan of striking from afar.
In order for Joshua to win, he must continuously trap and hurt Fury, a task easier said than done. Unfortunately for Joshua, his biggest weakness plays into one of Fury’s strengths. Joshua routinely gets tired in the later rounds of fights, leading to worse technique and poor decision-making. Fury’s superior stamina, clinch-heavy approach and remarkable ability to box well in the final rounds give him an edge in the fight. Joshua should aim to end the fight early with a stiff overhand right. If he doesn’t, he will find himself in deep waters with an aging but dangerous Fury. If history is any indicator, Fury is the wrong fighter to bank on knocking out.
