Who Would Make For a More Alluring Opponent For Joshua, Wilder or Fury?

Well it’s official. On December 1st WBC heavyweight title holder Deontay Wilder 40-0 (39) will face former lineal champ Tyson Fury 27-0 (19) at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. And then hopefully the winner will face WBA/IBF/WBO title holder Anthony Joshua 22-0 (21) in Joshua’s next fight, booked for April 13^th of next year at Wembley Stadium. And as Muhammad Ali often said prior to facing Joe Frazier back in 1971 “we’re gonna clear up all the confusion as to who the real heavyweight champ of the world is.”

The winner of Wilder-Fury vs. Joshua will be the most anticipated heavyweight showdown in at least 20 years and the only question is who would make for a bigger and better fight for Joshua, Wilder or Fury? However, before getting to that, there must be some correlations highlighted that substantiate why if Fury won and faced Joshua, it would parallel in many respects the first fight between Ali and Frazier.

Tyson Fury’s journey resembles Muhammad Ali’s. After winning the title from Wladimir Klitschko, Fury backslid into alcohol and drug abuse and never defended it. He retired and remained inactive for 31 months before returning to the ring. Fury has fought two non-entities in Sefer Seferi and Francesco Pianeta since returning.

After nine title defenses, Ali was exiled from the ring for 43 months for refusing military induction. Like Fury, Ali fought twice before earning a title shot against champ Joe Frazier. The difference is Ali fought and beat two of the top five contenders in the division at the time in Jerry Quarry and Oscar Bonavena.

In the ring, Fury, like Ali in his era, is an unconventional boxer who uses the ring and applies an unorthodox offense and defense. But this characteristic they have in common pales in comparison to the one thing where Fury most closely resembles Ali, and that’s the ability to stir things up with words, actions and pointed threats and promises as to what he’s going to do to his next opponent. Fury is clearly the best trash talker since Ali and his ability to draw crowds and gain attention is unrivaled by any fighter in boxing today. If Fury beats Wilder he’ll have a picnic going after the perceived good guy Joshua just as Ali did going after Frazier with the verbal assaults he lobbed his way.

Speaking of Joshua, in this equation he’s Joe Frazier. AJ holds a majority of the available hardware as Joe did, he’s a big puncher who wins exclusively by knockout and pretty much doesn’t say or do anything that crosses the line or is seen as being controversial. And perhaps the thing that joins Joshua and Frazier the most is that they both emerged just when the high profile charismatic champ was exiting. In Ali’s absence, Frazier looked every bit as impressive as Ali did on the way up, whereas Joshua has looked even more formidable than did Fury on Fury’s way up to the title. Moreover, both Frazier and Joshua, as terrific as they looked in the ring, both needed to beat the other fighter to be considered the true champion. In Joe Frazier’s case that meant Ali and in Joshua’s case it’s the Wilder-Fury survivor.

Who makes for a better event and fight against Joshua; Wilder or Fury?

The answer to that isn’t just a matter of who you like better between Deontay and Tyson. One makes for a more compelling fight in the ring, strategically, and the other makes for a bigger event, overflowing with boldness and insulting statements directed at Joshua on a daily basis.

From an in-the-ring perspective, a fight between Wilder and Joshua would no doubt be a better fight and more explosive. They are the two biggest punchers in the heavyweight division who for all intents and purposes seek to win their bouts by knockout. Both have an extremely long reach and use it to set up their bread and butter punch which in this case is their right hand. It can be argued as to who is the bigger puncher, and it’s plausible Wilder’s best right hand is a bigger single shot than anything in Joshua’s arsenal. Conversely, Joshua is the better two handed puncher with a left hand that no doubt carries more finishing power. Joshua is the more polished technician with better form and technique, is more capable of accurately delivering his power consistently, and he has short power and doesn’t need as much room to do damage.

Something else Joshua and Wilder share is that neither is great defensively and each is vulnerable to what the other does well. Joshua is most vulnerable to cuffing/overhand rights and Wilder has been out-jabbed by many of his opponents. To date, neither has shown that they have a chin remotely close to the ones exhibited by George Foreman and Ron Lyle during their slug-fest for the ages. Joshua was dropped in his fight against Wladimir Klitschko and Wilder was dropped by Harold Sconiers, a journeyman with a losing record. Joshua was shook for a few seconds against Dillian Whyte before winning by stoppage and was jarred by Alexander Povetkin at the end of the first round in his last fight. As for Wilder, he was buzzed good by Artur Szpilka and, despite not going down, was close to being stopped by Luis Ortiz.

The point is both AJ and Deontay have more than enough power to get rid of the other inside the distance. Couple that with the fact that neither will have much trouble catching the other and there’s no way the fight can’t be action-packed. And it may be the millennial version of Foreman-Lyle, without them having to hit each other with as many clean bombs as George and Ron dropped on each other, simply because it’s doubtful Joshua or Wilder are as rugged or durable as they were. Obviously Wilder beating Fury affords fans an opportunity to see a more exciting fight pitting the top Brit and American heavyweights in the world against each other.

What if Fury beats Wilder?

If Fury wins and goes on to fight Joshua, the similarities to Frazier-Ali I are there as mentioned above. Fans would see theatrics and bombast that might even rival Ali’s behavior prior to taking on Frazier in the “Fight of The Century” back in 1971. And as we saw before he fought Wladimir Klitschko, Tyson Fury, like Ali, is quite good at getting under his opponent’s skin. Fury will say things about Joshua that will make Ali calling Frazier an “Uncle Tom” seem like a pleasantry.

The other thing Fury shares with Ali is that he enters the ring more with a mindset to embarrass and humiliate his opponents than to hurt or knock them out. Fury, if he were to fight Joshua, wouldn’t even entertain beating him by stoppage. He’d be focused on out- maneuvering and out-boxing him, mixed in with some facial taunts and body gyrations during the action, again emulating Ali.

Being the lineal champ who never lost the title in the ring, Fury actually makes for the more credible fight if he were to beat Wilder. That’s because a Wilder win could be seen as being a matter of Fury having not gained his championship form after having fought only twice after a long layoff. And the likelihood is if Fury can beat Wilder, it would be by decision in a fight that went the full 12 rounds. And if that’s the case, Fury, having shaken off even more rust, could be better going in against Joshua than he was going into the Wilder bout.

Fury vs. Joshua is clearly a bigger fight from a monetary and promotional vantage point than Wilder vs. Joshua could ever hope to be. Wilder isn’t as well-known worldwide as Fury and isn’t nearly the promoter or entertainer Tyson is. And in the UK, the place they’d more than likely fight, it would be accompanied by a holiday and festive atmosphere like no other fight in British history. That said, the actual bout wouldn’t be exciting at all. And just as when he fought Klitschko, Fury would enter the ring against Joshua with the intent to make him look bad and turn the bout into a wrestling match instead of beating Joshua up or knocking him out.

So there you have it. If you want to be entertained, root for Wilder to beat Fury. On the other hand if you want to experience some funny antics and be amused up until the first bell, than you want Fury to beat Wilder.

Lastly, if the Wilder-Fury fight does come off as scheduled and the winner really fights Joshua in April, it’ll be the quickest turnaround between two major heavyweight title fights in years, and whoever fights Joshua should get a lot of credit for taking the fight so soon.

Between 1977 and 1982, Frank Lotierzo had over 50 fights in the middleweight division. He trained at Joe Frazier’s gym in Philadelphia under the tutelage of the legendary George Benton. Before joining The Sweet Science his work appeared in several prominent newsstand and digital boxing magazines and he hosted “Toe-to-Toe” on ESPN Radio. Lotierzo can be contacted at GlovedFist@gmail.com

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