“Sean O’Grady’s entire career was based on his win over Hilmer Kenty,” said Manny Steward. That’s what he once said to this writer about his boxer Kenty whom O’Grady defeated for the world title.
At the press conference when Tyson Fury showed up in a Bat Man costume and leaped over a table with his 6:09 frame did he “take the heart” out of Wladimir Klitschko? I sat with a boxing fan from the Ukraine where Klitschko lived and we both looked at each other when I asked “are Klitschko’s hands tied? When was he going to open up?” After 12 rounds we were still asking “when is he going to open up? I believe I even read where Fury asked, “was the fight fixed?” It kind of reminded me of the movie “The Harder They Fall” when the Primo Carnera type was given a bunch of “tomato cans” to beat and his manager played by Humphrey Bogart told him before the Max Baer type of next opponent was going to expose him and was told so and so you’re trainer could beat you. That is when the trainer played by “Jersey” Joe Walcott proved it.
The United Kingdom is not sitting well with Anthony Joshua’s last two outings. He defeats a substitute much smaller named Carlos Takam saying he will stop him “late” in the fight. Who stopped Takam? The referee or Joshua. The Joshua-Parker fight was the worst exhibition of a heavyweight title fight this writer has ever seen going back to watching the Marciano-Walcott rematch as an 8 year-old.
Will the Joshua-Wilder fight prove who is the best? Wilder didn’t want to exchange with Luis Ortiz for about 5 rounds. Ortiz may still be the most feared heavyweight in boxing today. Was it “time” or Wilder that beat Ortiz? Let’s hope a Joshua-Wilder fight is not a “dance-a-thon” but a really “who is the best heavyweight in the world.”
Getting back to the comeback of Fury it was written he had a mental breakdown after the fight with Klitschko. Since “mentality” is 50% of the offense for most boxers will it only be a “shade of Fury” upon his return? Usually when you are 6:09 in boxing you are “too big”! It is not like being pretty big like in basketball at 6:09. Once inside of an exceptionally tall boxer he is rendered almost defenseless. You don’t have to go back to watching Dempsey-Willard to see that. Did Holyfield expose Valuev by getting inside his defense?
When Steve “USS” Cunningham knocked Fury down one had to wonder “can Fury take a punch?” Upon rising he put his forearm into the eyes of Cunningham like a Frazier forearm and a Holmes straight arm to “blind” Cunningham for the punch “he didn’t see coming” and down this cruiserweight went.
Fury is only 29 but turned pro at the age of 19 so in 7 years of boxing he had 24 fights. How will Fury stand up to a pair of 38 year-old’s in “King Kong” Ortiz or Alexander “Russian Vityaz” Povetkin? Only time will tell!