By KJ Turkson
This Saturday's heavyweight title bout at Los Angeles' Staples Center between the fighting pride of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Deontay Wilder, and the self-proclaimed Gypsy King, former undisputed champ Tyson Fury of the United Kingdom, is accurately considered by most to be Part One of a two-bout mini-unification tournament, with the second leg to be contested between the winner of Saturday's fight and British superstar Anthony Joshua (the current holder of the WBA, IBF, and WBO championship straps).
Despite the fact that the recently resurgent Fury (victorious in both of his 2018 fights after being inactive throughout each of the previous two years) is actually not formally recognized as a heavyweight champion by any of the four major sanctioning bodies, it says here that the loquacious boxer is justified staking a legitimate claim to the title because he was the last fighter to legitimately lay claim to being the undisputed lineal heavyweight champion -- in other words, being the man who beat the man who beat the man.
This claim came by way of Fury's surprisingly dominant win over a lackluster and listless Wladimir Klitschko back in November 2015. However, in the direct aftermath of this career-best win and unanimous decision victory over the long-reigning Klitschko, Fury quickly removed himself from the top of the division, spiraling instead into a self-destructive period of binge-drinking and partying exacerbated by his ongoing bout with depression. This ultimately resulted in a two-and-a-half year layoff for Fury and a long road back, as he had to shed approximately 140 pounds to get back into respectable fighting shape.
Meanwhile, the man he will be challenging for 1/4 supremacy in the heavyweight division, WBC Champion Wilder, continues his quest to prove that he is indeed the unparalleled alpha dog of the division, as he is doggedly pursuing a superfight with British nemesis Joshua, if Eddie Hearn and his newly-formed DAZN Promotional outfit will actually allow it.
Anyone that has ever seen Wilder fight knows that his style in the ring is just that -- wild.
Throughout his ten-year pro career, the unorthodox Wilder has consistently shown some of the most amateurish and fundamentally unsound techniques ever displayed by an elite fighter at the championship level, despite the benefit of having some of the brightest boxing minds working in his camp (including the legendary Mark Breland and Russ Anber, as well as underrated Jay Deas). His origin story is quite well-known by now, but is worth repeating: the now 33-year-old was a late comer to the fight game, and actually might not have ever laced up a pair of gloves if he weren't in dire financial straits due to having a daughter born with spina bifida.
His managment and promotional team consciously decided to move him along quite slowly once he entered the paid ranks following a bronze medal performance at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, as his opposition typically came to collect a paycheck essentially at the expense of being a target and knockout victim for the Bronze Bomber.
That oft-criticized move has now proven to be not only well-intentioned, but quite sagacious as the current 2018 version of Wilder has clearly demonstrated that he is in possession of one key characteristic mandatory for any pugilist looking to ascend to the top of the prizefighting ranks: an unmistakable, supreme level of confidence and unshakable belief in his own abilities.
Indeed, Wilder has become a rare entity in the heavyweight division -- a dynamic, uber-athletic offensive juggernaut that seems to unfailingly overwhelm his opponents with his prodigious power, while at the same time still looking like a tall, lanky basketball player who stumbled into a boxing gym for the first time with his unconventional and downright awkward-looking punches.
The 6'9" former champ Fury, on the other hand, despite being the bigger man, is actually a decidedly more well-refined and neatly skilled fighter. While there is really no use at all debating which man possesses the heavier hands (Wilder possesses the highest knockout percentage of any current reigning champion in the sport, with 39 KOs in 40 fights, or 98%), Fury's best bet and most likely course of action for winning will be for him to keep his distance and box with intelligence while staying behind his educated left jab.
In addition, Fury's corner -- featuring a new face in the form of none other than Freddie Roach -- will need to ensure that the former champ from Manchester remembers to box in tight circles, tie up his man on the inside, and constantly circle to his right, away from Wilder's ramrod right hand. It says here that Fury's wisest course of action will be to try and jab Deontay to death and smother him on the inside in order to prevent the Bronze Bomber from gaining the necessary space and separation to effectively get off his shots.
If Fury -- who for all intents and purposes is a 154-pound junior middleweight stick-and-move boxer trapped in a 6'9", 240-pound man's body -- can administer a boxing lesson and succeed in making it a boring, ugly fight, it could frustrate the more dynamic Wilder and force the instinctive power-punching champion to have to think (or better yet, over-think). Should Fury be able to dictate that type of fight, then he will have indeed once again proven to be clairvoyant with his claims that he is already victorious for having conquered his mental health demons.
The fact that Fury is even in this position is rather remarkable considering where he was not too long ago. Fury has always shown an admirable level of belief and self-confidence in his ability to conquer more aesthetically-pleasing boxers in the ring, dating back to his proclamation that his Coronation as King of the Heavyweights against Klitschko was already written. For Fury, he is merely fulfilling what he believes to be his prophesied destiny.
Therein could be the key: while many were quick to dismiss Wilder as an inauthentic "paper champion" whose record was built largely behind careful and risk-averse matchmaking, he has also stated his equally strong mental belief that he was anointed for greatness at an early age.
For many, including this scribe, the Alabama native resoundingly answered all questions regarding his heart, chin, resiliency, recuperative powers, and stamina when he dispatched lethal Cuban southpaw Luis "King Kong" Ortiz in his last bout. In that fight, Wilder looked all but out on his feet for much of the Seventh Round before rallying and roaring back to stop the former Cuban amateur standout. Wilder clearly demonstrated that night which side of the "fight or flight" equation he was on against a far more experienced fighter with a decidedly better pedigree.
While Fury's win over the long-reigning Klitschko will likely be considered the better victory from a historical context than Wilder's thrilling battle with Ortiz, Wilder also has show a lot in his second round KO of former champion Bermane Stiverne, and in his brutal KO of Arthur Spilzka.
The last aspect of this fight that could also play into the calculus of determining who ultimately emerges victorious is a personal one. Both men, while doing their best to hype and promote the fight have gone to great lengths to try and show their animosity for one another, but it's all for show, as they both clearly respect and genuinely like each other.
In fact, in separate telling moments during the lead-up, each fighter got emotional when talking about the other man.
Fury has acknowledged on more than one occassion that Wilder reaching out to him during some of his darkest moments away from the game helped to motivate him to try and regain control of his life.
Wilder, meanwhile, has taken to co-opting much of Fury's eclectic hybrid mash-up of European traveller and cockney London rude boy slang in throwing good-natured insults Fury's way, and at times both men have appeared to be desperately trying to keep from breaking out in hysterical laughter. This begs the question: will either of them hold back on pulling the trigger should they have their opponent hurt?
Prediction
Fury will get caught cold early and appear to be all but out of it and on the verge of being stopped for the first loss of his professional career, before rallying to clearly take control of the fight and cruise through the middle rounds.
Don't be surprised to see a frustrated Wilder get penalized a point for roughhousing or throwing illegal punches. However, much like in the Ortiz fight, Deontay will land one big shot that changes everything, leading to a barrage of wild haymakers and resulting in him getting the stoppage victory.
Wilder wins by technical knockout, late in the fight sometime during Rounds 9, 10, or 11.
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