Tyson Fury Returns – This Saturday night Manchester sees the highly anticipated return of undefeated former heavyweight champion of the world Tyson Fury. Providing the opposition is unsung Sefer Seferi (23-1) of Macedonia.
We have not seen Fury (25-0) in 30 months, and what a tumultuous 30 months it was. It started with Fury’s big win over Wladimir Klitschko in November of 2015. The fight was bereft of highlights, but Fury did the unthinkable by dethroning Klitschko from the underdog spot. The rematch that could have sealed Fury’s legacy never happened however as the new champion was suspended for two years after a myriad of problems outside of the ring.
It was around New Year’s when word started to hit that Fury was working on a comeback. Though Fury and his handlers are unlikely to make a mistake matchmaking for this one, Fury will enter the ring this Saturday with a lot of questions.
First tell tale signs of what Fury will be like come Saturday may come at the weigh-ins, so some may decide to hold their bets until after Fury has stepped on the scales come Friday. During his suspension he is said to have ballooned to over 400 pounds and it will be interesting to see what Fury’s fighting weight settles in at. Is he still on his way down and in the 280’s or is the job nearly done and he comes in at 255? We will see Friday.
Once in the ring, it will be interesting to see how Fury moves around. The bottom line is that at 6’9 he was blessed with footwork and springy movement that most men his size do not have. Those skills however haven’t exactly been getting honed and refined over the last few years and Fury will be 30 years old in August. Look no further than the case of Brit David Price to see what happens when a big guy loses some speed. Now Fury is a much more sophisticated beast than Price, but Fury’s “fleetness of foot” for lack of a better term, will be under scrutiny come Saturday.
This is Fury’s first fight back in more than two years and he has big money and big legacy type of challenges ahead of him in the heavyweight division. The time away allowed Fury to be supplanted by Anthony Joshua at the top of the weight class. Joshua versus Fury is probably the biggest fight in the sport right now, with Deontay Wilder in the mix for a second fat payday somewhere down the line. Fury seems to have a chip on his shoulder about the lack of respect he feels he received for beating Klitschko and he has much bigger things in mind that Seferi. The Fury we see on Saturday night needs to be focused on the job at hand and he needs to win impressively.
As pointed out earlier, Seferi is unlikely to be the guy to expose Fury. He has a respectable record and a win over long-time contender Manuel Charr on his resume but for the most part he evokes memories of Arnold Gjergjaj and Mark De Mori. That pair of fighters had excellent records on the “B” circuit and both were dispatched early by David Haye in their steps up to the big time. Boxing is a game of levels and tiers of talent, and Fury is way above Seferi when it comes to ring craft. The numbers the odds makers put up for this one just about say it all.
Tyson Fury Returns
Sat 6/9 – Manchester Arena – Manchester, England
Heavyweight 10 rounds –
Sefer Seferi +3500 o5½ +155
Tyson Fury -8500 u5½ -175
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