When Fury has beaten Wladimir again...

[yoz]

When Fury has beaten Wladimir again, then who do you think he will fight? His WBA mandatory, Luis Ortiz, or his WBO mandatory, Joseph Parker? And how do you think he will do against either?

He won't.

And if, by some miracle (like the first fight), he does, Ortiz will KO him.

[Fury4daWIN]

Heavyweight is on a whole new level now, compared to the Klitschko era.

Fury, Wilder, Joshua, Ortiz, Parker, Browne, Povetkin, Pulev, Haye and, until Fury beats him again, Wladimir himself.

Povetkin, Pulev and Haye were all around during Wlad's era and beaten soundly by him. Browne isn't really worth mentioning as anything special. The division is heating up a bit, but let's not overstate the case.

[Fury4daWIN]

If Wlad has any greatness at all he will change his gameplan and defeat Fury in the rematch. That fight was embarrassing. I don't care how old he is. He is so much faster and powerful. If he lets his damn hands go he will win. He needs to fight like the Wlad before Steward changed his style.

Then I can see Wlad fighting Ortiz or Wilder.

Trouble is that Wlad's greatness has been based on him finding a certain winning formula and honing that to a tee. He's done that brilliantly, but it's got to the point where he can't really fight any other way. It's unrealistic to expect him to start fighting like he was in his mid twenties again. Not going to happen. When he opens up he looks amateurish now. Everything seems forced. That's partly a result of age but mostly due to his mental conditioning. Every time he starts to let his hands go that inner voice is going to be screaming in his ear to clinch, reset, jab, clinch, reset, jab. That's a huge hurdle to overcome.

I think we might see a more aggressive Wlad for a few rounds. Then Fury is going to take over and Wlad's going to go into his shell and get stopped.

[Fury4daWIN]

He won't.

And if, by some miracle (like the first fight), he does, Ortiz will KO him.

Ortiz is a dangerman no doubt, but he has shown some vulnerabilities on the outside. Thompson was able to tag him and keep him at bay for stretches in their fight, as was Jennings. The danger comes from Ortiz's coolness under fire and ability to land repeated hard shots that shake you to the core. If Tyson finds himself getting tagged then things will look very bad for him. My feeling is that he will be able to keep Ortiz at a distance and outbox him over the stretch in a nailbiting contest.

[Fury4daWIN]

in all of wlads reign this is the most loaded the division has been. sad because he's older (not shot) but older....it really proves what the guys said. "wlad is a product of a weak division" now when the division has finally picked up a little steam wlad gets outboxed and dominated.

fury
wilder
joshua
ortiz


4 seriously good fighters........

No need to disrespect Wlad like that. His division may have lacked colour, but he beat his fair share of good, competent fighters and dominated over a huge stretch of time. That takes skills no matter what you think of his level of opposition.

I think it's also pertinent to recall what people thought of his opponents at the time he fought them. Back in the day Peter was considered in a similar vein to Ortiz today, a dangerous, durable fighter with a huge tank. Obviously not as good as him, but not the joke people see him as now. Haye was also considered his biggest threat by miles when that fight was made; even now many people still pick him over the likes of Joshua and Wilder, which I don't think is quite justified, but shows the high regard people hold for him as a fighter.

I'm not sure I'd call Wilder a "seriously good fighter." He's very much a product of careful matchmaking and hype. Good but no better than Haye, and probably quite a bit worse.

Joshua and Fury are the only two guys that Wlad never had to face in his prime, and Joshua is still quite unproven and could well turn out to be a bust.

[Fury4daWIN]

This is me observing the Heavyweight Division in the years to come: