The best fights come with questions, and there are many surrounding Deontay Wilder v Tyson Fury as they meet in a highly-anticipated rematch
Tyson Fury has dismissed Deontay Wilder as a “one-trick pony” ahead of their WBC heavyweight title rematch on Saturday.
Fury failed in his bid to snatch the belt from the champion when he was dropped twice in their 2018 bout, earning Wilder a draw despite being out-boxed for much of the fight.
Wilder’s renowned power was evidenced that night when he knocked Fury down in rounds nine and 12, with the latter a particularly devastating shot which the Mancunian somehow recovered from.
Some believe that power will ensure Wilder keeps the belt again when the pair fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas this weekend, but Fury is convinced he has the measure of his man.
Here, Gareth A Davies speaks to two trainers who know the fighters intimately to ask how they think the fight will be won…
How Fury can win:
Ben Davison, Fury’s former trainer
At the top level it boils down to game-plan. When you’ve got an elite fighter, and like it or not Deontay Wilder is an elite-level fighter, if you go in with the wrong tactics you could lose.
When Wilder holds his right hand between his right nipple and his hip Tyson needs to read that as a warning sign that Wilder is ready to strike. It’s a warning sign. He worked on reading that in the first fight.
Wilder could use the tactic where he forgets about the right hand for a few rounds. He may use his jab and try to lull Tyson into a false sense of security. Then all of a sudden he sinks a right hand.
In his last fight, Wilder was throwing a left hook to the body of Luis Ortiz and a left hook to the shoulder of Ortiz. What was he doing? He was positioning Ortiz to have to go towards Wilder’s right hand. By punching him in the arm and throwing long left hooks to the body, he walked Ortiz round to his right hand and consequently Ortiz walked straight into that trap.
Tyson can keep Wilder’s left hand busy by touching it, blocking it, putting his arms up.
Tyson can dominate this fight with his jab and movement, as he did in the first fight, but he could also get him with a left hook.
It did a massive job for Tyson in the 12th round of the first fight and allowed him to take control after he had been down.
How Wilder can win:
Jay Deas, Wilder’s current trainer
Does Tyson Fury being more aggressive play into our hands? I think it’s a situation where if he’s taking chances, that’ll give us opportunities as well.
One of Fury’s real talents is negating what you do until you get frustrated and then he begins to do what he can do. He can make a war of it, but Tyson can punch. The boxer can punch and the puncher can box.
This is the kind of fight where you have to realise Fury will not give you opportunities – you have to make your own opportunities. You can’t wait on him, hoping he has a fatal flaw you can exploit at some point down the line. You have to press that and make that flaw apparent.
That doesn’t mean you have to do that in one round, it could be a process that gets you there later in the fight. But we do have to make some headway early – that’s one of the things we have been working on.
I think it very well could be a fight which comes down to what adjustments each fighter has made. We feel we have a solid game-plan, and it’s good to have a strategy, but you’ve also got to be flexible and react to what’s happening once the bell rings.