Has there ever been a heavyweight slugfest where the action was so intense, so fast and relentless that the fight could be compared to the epic middleweight showdown between Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns? Probably the closest we’ve seen to it is the classic Foreman-Lyle war, where, like Marv and Tommy, the two combatants went at in a a real hell for leather manner; caring nothing defence.
Well, Tyson Fury – who admittedly talks a whole lot – says his fight with Anthony Joshua (if it actually happens) will be a “heavyweight remake” of the unforgettable eight minutes from 1985 all short and frighteningly violent fights have since been measured by. Fury, speaking with the Pound for Pound podcast, said a fight between he and Joshua will not go any more than four-rounds and that “one of us will go to sleep.”
“I’m going to make a bold statement here,” Fury said intriguingly. “If I get the AJ fight, I’m going to make it a four-round fight. Either he’s going to go or I’m going to go. He can’t underestimate my power and my size and strength. I want to make it a war. I want to make it a Tommy Hearns versus Marvin Hagler remake, but in the heavyweight division. Either I’ll go to sleep or he’ll go to sleep. To be honest, I don’t give a flying f**k if it’s me or him – someone is going.”
As much as fight fans the world over would absolutely love it if Fury and Joshua put on a fight hand as good as Hagler-Hearns, or one half as good as Foreman-Lyle for that matter, it would seem as though by adopting trading tactics Fury would be giving the heavier-hitting Joshua his best chance of winning. Fury, with the defensive, plenty of movement approach he adopted against Wladimir Klitschko, would possibly prove to be Joshua’s worst nightmare.
Fury has gone to war in past fights – his slugfest with Steve Cunningham for one notable example – and he was vulnerable as a result of fighting that way. With Fury it could be hot air and nothing more, but if he did get in there and rumble in a toe-to-toe war with Joshua, the winners would be the fans but not necessarily Fury himself.
