Tyson Fury and his new trainer, SugarHill Steward, continue to say the plan is to knock out Deontay Wilder in their rematch on Feb. 22. Now, Fury has added several reasons to suggest he’s serious.
Fury expects to be nearly 14 pounds heavier for the Fox/ESPN pay-per-view bout than he was for the controversial draw with Wilder about 14 months ago at Los Angeles’ Staples Center. Fury told the Bart And Hahn Show, an ESPN talk show in New York, Wednesday that he is currently at 270 pounds. He said he expects to be at that weight at opening bell.
He also posted a photo of himself on Instagram, looking fit and fight-ready. “Solid as a rock 19 stone, 270lbs coming for @bronzebomber,” he says.
For the first fight, Fury was at 256½, or 13½ pounds lighter than his projected weight for the rematch at Las Vegas MGM Grand. The additional pounds might be a sign he is trying to augment his power.
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He predicted at the first formal news conference last month for Fury-Wilder II that he would score a second-round knockout of Wilder. That one generated some predictable skepticism, straight out of Fury-being-Fury. He says a lot of things. Why would he try to counter Wilder’s singular power with power he has never shown? He’s a boxer who was ahead on the scorecards before Wilder knocked him down twice, first in the ninth round and again in the 12th.
Why not just do for 12 rounds what had worked so well for eight? Stay away and win a decision. That, at least, is the conventional wisdom. But Fury is anything but conventional. He said he fired trainer Ben Davison and hired Steward because he wants more power in his right hand. Steward’s mentor and namesake is the late Emanuel Steward, who taught power, first and foremost.
Fury, who says he was robbed in the first fight, has already said he doesn’t believe he can win a decision in the United States.
“He doesn’t want that again,’’ SugarHill Steward told iFL TV. “I don’t want it. I wasn’t raised that way. Emanuel always taught me: ‘Get the knockout.’
“That’s the only 100 percent way you know you won the fight, by taking it out of the hands of the judges. I thought Tyson did enough to win the fight, even though he was knocked down twice. I’m not mad at the decision, because I was always taught: ‘Don’t leave it in the hands of the judges.’‘’