This is a fight that I’ve been waiting for, but at the same time, I don’t want to happen. Why? You have two of the best boxers in the world who are the two best heavyweight boxers. Joshua lost his claim with his loss to Ruiz and his rematch actually removed him further from that conversation. How? His mystique of greatness had been entirely taken away from him. His confidence was shook to the core and the whole world saw it. While he outboxed Ruiz, Joshua lost confidence in his ability as a fighter, which is why he changed his style so dramatically.
That is not the case with these two.
They both still have that shroud of greatness over them and when someone falls tomorrow, they’ll lose that aura. Sure, it will leave us with one undisputed champion of the world, but one of the greatest boxing personalities of the past decade will surely begin to fade away. Now, obviously, that all depends on the finish. While anything can happen in a boxing match, especially a heavyweight boxing match, I’d say that this fight ends one of two ways, 9 out of 10 times.
Wilder by KO.
or
Fury by decision.
Deontay is my favorite boxer in the world. Currently, with GSP’s inactivity, he is my favorite fighter in the world. He is exactly that… a fighter. I’ll quickly admit that Fury is a better boxer, but Deontay’s knockout power is on an entirely different level. I’m shocked that Fury rose in the 12th in their last fight. It almost seemed like some form of divine intervention, but lightning doesn’t strike twice. If Deontay floors him again, he won’t get up, especially with an extra 20 lbs of pure muscle packed on his frame. If, however, Fury has an absolutely flawless fight and avoids any knockout punches, he will absolutely beat him by decision, probably somewhere around 9 rounds to 3, or so.
Again, anything can happen, but they’d probably need to fight 20 times before Fury knocks out Deontay. They’d probably need to fight 40 times before Deontay beats Fury by decision, especially with Fury looking in such great shape. Deontay could knock him out at any point, but I think somewhere around the 9th or 10th round is most likely. Fury’s conditioning looks good, but a certain level of fatigue is inevitable and just like in the Ortiz rematch, it only takes a second. Deontay will wait a whole fight for one second.
Either way, I’ll recognize the winner of this fight as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. Joshua would be looking up to them, not the other way around. That does, to some degree, depend on the nature of the finish but as I mentioned, I don’t see many outcomes other than those two. Sure, you can argue that despite standing Fury shouldn’t have been allowed to continue in the last fight but Jack Reese probably made the right call there, especially with Fury outboxing him the whole match. I was alright with the draw decision, but it certainly shouldn’t happen again.
I hope Deontay wins, but it really is 50/50 going into the fight, in terms of who will win. That is heavyweight boxing. I think Fury would have an easier time continuing his career with a loss than Deontay would because his legacy is stronger. Deontay needs this win by KO and then a win by KO over Joshua to really push himself into that upper echelon of heavyweight boxing names. His knockout percentage might be the best of all time, but he really needs more wins over bigger names.
It’d be nice if the rest of the card was a bit more exciting, but I’d gladly pay for the PPV just for this main event.
BOMBZQUAD!
(Photo credit: AP)
