By Keith Idec
Tyson Fury doesn’t dispute Deontay Wilder’s ability to deliver knockout punches.
The lineal heavyweight champion does doubt whether Wilder can take a solid shot. Fury questioned Wilder’s chin during their third and final press conference of this week Wednesday in Los Angeles.
Fury even told a story about the unbeaten WBC heavyweight champion suffering a devastating knockout defeat to Russia’s Evgenyi Romanov when Wilder was an amateur boxer in 2008. Wilder questioned Fury’s integrity after the gigantic British showman told that story, but there is video footage of Wilder’s loss to Romanov on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugc3ezFPqek).
“He goes on about he’s beaten this person, he’s beaten that person,” said Fury, who’ll challenge Wilder in a Showtime Pay-Per-View main event December 1 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
“I’ve seen him knocked out before, spark out, by a little fat fella, that big [raises his hand] – out. In the amateurs, he boxed America versus Russia and the little Russian fella cleaned him out. Bam! The ‘Bomb Squad? The Bomb Squad’ was on his back. Like a dead fly, he was on his back, legs and arms in the air, sparked out. There ain’t no videos around the world of Tyson Fury ever getting knocked out.
“So he might be able to punch, but I know he’s got a glass chin. All big punchers can’t take one back. So let’s see if he can really do the talking when it comes to fighting a proper heavyweight champion of the world. It’s all right fighting bums, you big dosser. But when you fight a real man, you know to sit down [Wilder was seated].”
Luis Ortiz hurt Wilder badly during the seventh round of their March 3 fight at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, but he didn’t drop the 6-feet-7 knockout artist. Wilder withstood that trouble and came back to floor Ortiz twice more in the 10th round, when he stopped the Cuban southpaw to retain his title.
Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) hasn’t been knocked down during a professional fight since Harold Sconiers dropped him nearly eight years ago, in Wilder’s 13th pro bout. Wilder won that October 2010 bout by fourth-round technical knockout.
Former cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham knocked down England’s Fury (27-0, 19 KOs) in the second round of their March 2013 battle in The Theater at Madison Square Garden. Fury overcame that difficulty to knock out Cunningham in the seventh round.
“Deontay Wilder needs Tyson Fury,” Fury said. “Tyson Fury don’t need Deontay Wilder. I chose Deontay Wilder as an easy victim, as an easy victim. Unbelievable. This is gonna be the easiest fight of my career. I said that Wladimir Klitschko would be the easiest fight of me career, and he was. Now I’m gonna say that this guy’s gonna be me easiest fight, and I predict he will.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
