The boxing legend predicts a potential Anthony Joshua v Tyson Fury fight later this year, and also the upcoming bout between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford.
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Do you think Tyson Fury will fight Anthony Joshua?
I don’t know but the game is about momentum and if you can’t fight the champion where Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois are fighting in July, then in the meantime, the thing that really kills you is ring rust and inactivity so I would advise them both to fight. In 20 years, people will be saying, “I wonder what would’ve happened if they had fought each other,” so why don’t they get it together? Both of them are former champions, both need to keep busy whereas Usyk and Dubois are sorting themselves out and get straight back in. The winner of that would be an automatic choice for the winner of Usyk and Dubois.
Who would win between Fury and Joshua?
Daniel Dubois knocked out Anthony Joshua with that right hand and it was terrible advice from the corner to double the jab and throw the right hand. Shane (McGuigan) actually said it was a very dangerous thing to do. You don’t double jab a guy who punches as hard as Daniel Dubois. His right hand is so heavy, you’re walking straight on to an explosion, what sort of advice was that? They got it wrong, and Joshua walked on to the right hand.
Is Anthony Joshua now chinny and more exposed? Can he hold a shot? Styles make fights though and styles will always make fights. You have to look at the combination of styles and apparently Joshua gave Fury a hiding all of those years ago when they went to spar, but it is all sparring talk. I do believe Joshua has the style to always be a major problem to Tyson Fury. He has the right style for Fury, and he could knock Fury out reasonably quickly too, that’s the combination of styles. But Tyson will always give someone like Daniel Dubois problems because he has good feet, he’s a mover and is a thinker, whereas Joshua will stand there and have a fight with someone like Dubois and get knocked out every time. If Fury fights Joshua, I will say Joshua has a real chance of knocking him out.
How do you see Canelo Alvarez v Terence Crawford going?
Interestingly, Canelo may have peaked. We all reach the top of the hill and then start to drop. Let’s be honest, William Scull is a Cuban fighter but he got out and probably wasn’t one of the best Cuban boxers either, but he has got the perfect style to make anyone look bad. He’s negative, pulls away and is hard to hit. You look at that fight and think Terence Crawford has a great chance and the fact he won’t go down in weight is something he didn’t need to do. Why would Canelo go down to 164lbs or towards 160lbs when he doesn’t need to do it?
Canelo is the attraction, although you could say Crawford is the more complete fighter and is a better all-round fighter than Canelo, but he is out of his weight divisions, and he didn’t score a knockout when he won the 154lb title. He will certainly be under-powered when he fights Canelo. But on the strength of his performance against Scull, I give Crawford a great chance. He is well in that fight and has a good chance of winning that fight.
I think Crawford needs to go back to his old self in the sense of him being a good puncher and his timing. He is an old-fashioned fighter in the Sugar Ray Robinson style with everything being miniscule timing, he makes you fall short by just a fraction and then walks in with a counter shot. But in this fight, in order to take the sting out of Canelo’s power early on, he will have to drift in and out of punching range and not hold his feet as much. He doesn’t have to run around the ring but he needs to be mobile, certainly, in the early stages of the fight, and then walk Canelo onto shots, beat him to the punch and move around and hope not to get hit himself.
Crawford doesn’t have the same footwork as Scull has and maybe isn’t as elusive because Crawford is courageous and a risk taker. He prides himself on exchanging with you. Crawford won’t do that with Canelo early on into the fight and he will be as evasive and as elusive as he can be, because if not he will get dragged into a trench war. That wouldn’t work as effectively. When you’ve worked out Canelo is losing his power, then step your foot on the gas and exchange with him but Canelo will know what to do. They both know how to box and cope with various styles. I think Terence Crawford has a great chance of winning.
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