In the last few weeks, former undisputed heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis has praised Tyson Fury (27-0, 19 KOs) for stepping up to the plate to challenge WBC world champion Deontay Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs).
Last Saturday night in Belfast, Fury dominated Francesco Pianeta over ten rounds for a unanimous decision victory - as Wilder sat at ringside for the fight.
After the fight, both Fury and Wilder revealed that a deal was finalized for the two of them to fight each other in the fall, likely on a date in November in Las Vegas.
Back in 2015, Lewis expected Wladimir Klitschko to retain his bundle of belts with a solid win over Fury.
That didn't happen.
Fury, who was a huge underdog coming in, traveled over to Germany and boxed his way to a twelve round unanimous decision over Klitschko to capture the WBO, IBO, WBA, IBF world titles.
“Tyson Fury’s surprised me in the past,” Lewis told Hawksbee and Jacobs on Talk Sport. “I didn’t think he was going to do that well against Wladimir and he did better than expected."
The fight with Klitschko was Fury's last, until June of this year, when he finally came back to the ring and stopped overmatched opponent Sefer Seferi in four rounds of action.
Some believe Fury may be biting off more than he chew - at least with only two fights under his belt since resuming his career a few short months ago.
Lewis views Fury as a boxer who can look lackluster in a lower level fight, but exceeds all expectations when matched against a top level opponent.
"Certain fighters, they rise to the occasion and he seems like one of those fighters to rise to the occasion," Lewis said.
“He may have a couple of fights to kind of warm him up to the aspect of jumping in the ring to a big fight, but he always shows up for the big fights.”
