The Javan ‘Sugar’ Hill Factor, a Wild Card in the Fury-Wilder Rematch

True “pick-‘em” fights don’t come down the pike very often, but Saturday’s rematch between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury is about as close as it gets. At last look, most shops listed Wilder a very slight favorite. A professional bettor with a range of off-shore accounts at his disposal could lock in a wager at “even money” no matter which side he fancied. But ferreting out the ultimate winner is a head-scratcher, at least for most people, or so it seems.

The first Wilder-Fury encounter was memorable. On Saturday when they renew acquaintances, Tyson Fury will have a new trainer in charge of his corner. Two months ago, in mid-December, the Gypsy King announced that he had hired Javan “Sugar” Hill to help him prepare for the rematch.

Fury is turning back the clock. Back in 2010, with 10 pro fights under his belt, Fury spent a month at the Kronk Gym in Detroit where Hill worked as the chief assistant to his uncle, the late Emanuel Steward. Fury was there with his cousin, the future WBO middleweight title-holder Andy Lee who had turned pro under Steward’s tutelage after representing England in the 2004 Olympics. Fury recalls that he would have stayed in Detroit longer but could not bear to spend more time away from his wife and baby daughter. (Mr. and Mrs. Fury, Tyson and Paris, now have five children.)

Javan “Sugar” Hill, a former Detroit policeman who became the cornerstone of the Kronk Gym operation following the death of his uncle in 2012, was hired to improve Fury’s punching power. But is that possible?

“Power is one thing that can’t be mentored,” says long-time Montreal Gazette sportswriter Herb Zupkowsky, echoing a widely-shared opinion. “It’s a God-given talent. A fighter has it or he doesn’t. It’s that simple.” (It’s also worth noting that Fury stands six-foot-nine and that, historically, tall heavyweights don’t hit all that hard.)

That being said, it is a fact that Javan Hill, 49, has been in the company of some of the sport’s most fearsome punchers. He witnessed up close the evolution of  Thomas Hearns. As a pro, the “Hit Man” was never better than on the night he knocked Roberto Duran into dreamland with a bombshell of a right cross, leaving the legendary Duran splattered face first on the canvas in the center of the ring.

Four years after Hearns flattened Duran, another fighter who would become known as a great knockout artist, Michael Moorer, turned pro under the Kronk Gym banner. Moorer won his first 26 fights inside the distance, nine in the opening round, before being extended the full “10” by six-foot-10 Mike “The Giant” White, about whom it was said that his punches couldn’t crack an egg.

Javan “Sugar” Hill was involved only peripherally in the pro career of Moorer, but Steward entrusted him with rising light heavyweight contender Adonis Stevenson and they became a formidable duo. In 2013, Stevenson won the WBC (and lineal) light heavyweight title with a spectacular one-punch, first-round knockout of Chad Dawson.

But that wasn’t the most devastating one-punch knockout that Hill helped orchestrate. On Jan. 28, 2005, Johnathon Banks, carrying 193 pounds on his six-foot-three frame for his fifth pro fight, knocked out an Ohio journeyman named Arterio Vines in 31 seconds. This was a frightening knockout. It would be several minutes before Vines could be revived and a good 10 minutes before he could leave the ring on his own power. (Banks left the sport in 2015 with a record of 29-3-1 and, like his Kronk buddy Javan “Sugar” Hill, is now a prominent trainer.)

Leverage and torque are the keys to landing hard shots and neither is possible without the proper balance. Following Adonis Stevenson’s blowout of Chad Dawson, Hill was asked what was Stevenson’s chief asset. “His balance is exceptional,” he told the aforementioned Zupkowsky. “That’s why he’s bringing more and more punching power, from his balance. He can throw jabs and hurt you. He can throw hooks, body shots, left hands. Every punch is a dangerous punch.”

Interestingly, Tyson Fury  cited his need to be better balanced as the reason he hooked up with Hill. “I’ve always had this God-given athleticism and mobility, but while that herky jerky movement puts opponents off, I don’t only want to make ‘em miss, I want to make ‘em miss and make ‘em pay. This time I will be balanced and set to make Deontay pay when he misses,” he told Jeff Powell of the Daily Mail.

Fury was inactive for 31 months after deposing long-reigning heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in November of 2015. During his hiatus, as is well-documented, he battled depression and addictions and his weight ballooned to almost 400 pounds. He returned to the sport with a new trainer, Ben Davison.

That was a surprising choice as Davison was relatively obscure and four years younger than Fury. But in hindsight — and hindsight is always 20/20 — that was a smart pick. Fury’s first order of business was to push away his demons and get his body back in shape and Davison, who would come to define his role as that of a trainer, psychologist, physiologist, and nutritionist, was foremost a conditioning coach. He was the right man for the job.

Now that he has his act together, Fury doesn’t need a psychologist or physiologist to baby him back to what he used to be. Now the main emphasis is on sharpening his ring tools. Enter Javan “Sugar” Hill, the man from Kronk. (Ben Davison says he has no ill-feelings; that he and Tyson will always remain friends.)

Like most people with whom we have compared notes, we have no firm conviction as to who will win Saturday’s big fight. But the Javan “Sugar” Hill factor tilts us Tyson’s way, if only for the moment.

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