With just days remaining in the countdown until Tyson Fury challenges Deontay Wilder for the WBC heavyweight world title, the bookies remain convinced the Brit faces an uphill task to dethrone the Bronze Bomber to become a two-time world champion.
Speaking exclusively to BTSport.com ahead of their mouth-watering clash at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on December 1, Fury predicted he will stop Wilder inside the distance – even going so far as to describe the sequence of events that will lead to the champion’s downfall.
“He throws a big straight right hand with lots of power in it,” Fury explained.
“I think every fourth or fifth right hand is a straight one, the other ones are swings. When he throws that straight right, I’m going to slip to the left and I’m going to detonate a big left hand, bang, into the liver.
“He’s going to go ‘boom’ to the floor. And that is how the fight ends.”
In the build-up to any other fight, hearing from almost any other fighter, such an outlandish prediction might reasonably be dismissed as merely promotion – but Tyson Fury has a track record for delivering on his promises.
Speaking to The Ring magazine in the weeks preceding his shock win over Wladimir Klitschko in November 2015, Fury made a similarly bold statement revealing his game plan to nullify the reigning champion of almost 11 years in impressive detail.
“(Klitschko) is so accustomed to winning everything with that jab and stepping back,” Fury explained.
“What happens when he can’t do that because he’s out of range? When he can’t hit the target with the left, he won’t have the confidence to release the right. Then what?
“He’s an Emanuel Steward fighter and I know how he thinks. Klitschko likes to touch his man with the jab and follow with the right, but if he can’t land the left, there is no right.”
His words foretold the story on the night as the 6ft 9ins fighter flummoxed Klitschko by executing the game plan flawlessly, disrupting the Ukrainian’s rhythm using a combination of brains and brawn to dance his way to victory over 12 rounds.
In doing so, Fury wrestled the IBF, WBA, IBO, WBO and lineal heavyweight titles away from Klitschko’s adopted home of Germany for the first time in more than a decade.
On December 1, the 30-year-old will have the chance to fulfil his prophecy for a second time, securing the only major belt that has evaded him by dethroning WBC champion Deontay Wilder to become a two-time champion of the division.
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