The best Heavyweight boxer in the world, Tyson Fury, will face a new challenge in power-punching MMA kingpin, Francis Ngannou, this Saturday (Oct. 28, 2023) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in a “Battle of the Baddest!”
Fury is an unpredictable fellow. He might retire unexpectedly, disappear from the scene for a year, or challenge the latest, greatest champion in the boxing world. Still, in 15 years and 33 fights, nobody has been able to best “The Gypsy King,” which is a true testament to his boxing prowess and ability to zone in. An elite showman and elite competitor alike, Fury is unquestionably the best Heavyweight boxer of his generation.
This bout is a side step for Fury, a chance to score a huge paycheck with likely minimal effort before possibly taking on the likes of Oleksandr Usyk or Anthony Joshua. If nothing else, I’m curious to see how he approaches the task of dispatching “The Predator.”
Let’s take a closer look at his boxing skill:
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Photo credit should read PATRIK STOLLARZ/AFP via Getty Images
Boxing
Tyson Fury is a chameleon in the ring. He understands the rules of boxing so well that he’s able to break them with regularity, and he incorporates tactics that are likely rather familiar to MMA fans.
As with almost any great fighter who operates with his hands by his waist, feints, head movement, and footwork are the first true key to success. Fury may be a quite tall man with an iron chin, but his skill keeps him safe as much as any physical attribute. At range, Fury is always moving. His feet are shuffling, pivoting, L stepping, side-stepping, or false starting pretty much all the time. His upper body feints are equally active, as Fury is constantly feinting with his lead shoulder, as well as shooting his arm out to the side in the vague threat of a check hook.
It’s an overwhelming amount of movement.
In this chaos, Fury most often starts to establish his lead hand. He throws the jab in any number of ways. He stepped into the punch like a spear in the latter two fights against Deontay Wilder, but he’s more often content to flick the punch or even backhand it. Double and triple jabs are common for Fury, as is hooking off the jab.
Fury’s left hook is a difficult punch to distinguish from the jab. He can throw it with power, but often, it’s another slapping shot that serves to set up his right or secure the clinch. When Fury steps deep towards his opponent with a bladed stance and his head low, it’s very difficult to interpret whether a hard jab or clubbing hook is coming.
As part of his movement at distance, Fury is quite willing to shift into Southpaw — a very MMA thing to do! He’ll shift as part of his defensive movement or to snap a crisp right jab in his foe’s face. He’ll also use the shift more offensively, most often by letting his right hand carry him into Southpaw for one more leftie swing. That said, one of Fury’s knockdowns against Wilder came when he threw an Orthodox left hook, used that land to shake into the Southpaw stance, then bowled Wilder over with a Southpaw left hook to the body.
Prior to defeating Wladimir Klitschko to become lineal champion, Fury wasn’t known as much of a knockout puncher. That reputation really changed with his Deontay Wilder trilogy, a series of fights that perfectly illustrated his ability to shift tactics and punish his opponent with a full boxing arsenal. As such, it’s a great microcosm for Fury’s overall talents.
In the first bout, Fury approached with his more typical tactics of dancing along the outside and making Wilder miss. He won a majority of the rounds poking and prodding at “The Bronze Bomber,” but he was also operating on a thin margin for error. That style guaranteed a long fight, and given Wilder’s nuclear bomb of a right hand, Fury had to stay perfect for all 12 rounds.
He was dropped twice and nearly finished in the process, so an adjustment was needed.
The second fight was Fury’s masterclass of the trio. He still moved well on the outside, but he shifted tactics by committing hard to his offense. There was no flick of the jab to be seen, as he stepped deep into the punch and looked to knock Wilder off-balance. After establishing that power jab, Fury then began to use his lead hand more to slap down his foe’s defense and crash forward with the right.
He battered Wilder with those crashing rights, as well as overhands atop the jab. The American’s legs were gone, and as he stumbled and reached for clinches, Fury started stinging him up the middle with right uppercuts as well. That close distance right hand-right uppercut combo did serious damage, and it made it difficult for Wilder to find any safety.
The third match was a more competitive showing, as Wilder was better prepared for Fury’s aggression and power hitting. Subsequently, Wilder got more of his own connections in, and Fury was forced to dig deep and make it into a dogfight. The third bout featured more extended close range fighting. Aside from the uppercut and cross playing off one another, Fury did stellar work in rolling behind his shoulders and sneaking in counters to the head and body. Even his jab was effective at close distance, snapping Wilder’s chin upward and allowing Fury more time to slip and roll shots.
The ref let them work, and there was even a moment or two of Fury sneaking a collar-tie to land his uppercut, as well as a point loss for an elbow connection in the clinch.
Even as both the third Wilder fight devolved into relative chaos, Fury’s sharp range fighting instincts remained. His hardest overall lands came when Wilder loaded up and missed from afar, at which point Fury could roll or pull and return with a massive right hand connection of his own.
Lastly, Fury’s head movement is a definite strength. His length gives him the ability to lean back to good effect, but Fury avoids the classic pitfall of leaning back: getting stuck in the mud. His feet always move with him, allowing him to lean back or shift behind either shoulder continuously. Much of the time, Fury is escaping to an angle or searching for his moment to roll while evading shots, a pair of options that help prevent his opponents from continually building combinations.
If Fury can force them to reset off his lateral movement, the combination has to end. Then, Fury is back to work at range, pecking and prodding or crashing forward with heavier blows.
Conclusion
Fury is certainly a level above Ngannou in the ring, and he’s dealt with huge hitters before. The most interesting angle here might just be what approach Fury opts to take, whether he tries to walk Ngannou down and fatigue him with heavy connections or if he decides to put on a defensive showcase with distance movement and pokes.
Andrew Richardson, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt, is a professional fighter who trains at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California. In addition to learning alongside world-class talent, Andrew has scouted opponents and developed winning strategies for several of the sport’s most elite fighters.