Tyson Fury is still far from being ready to challenge ”regular” WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin, never mind risk life and limb against Vitali or Wladimir Klitschko.Despite the gung-ho attitude of several British tabloids and boxing experts that are claiming Fury’s fifth round stoppage of a 40 year old and ring rusty Martin Rogan for the Irish heavyweight title was proof that he is ready to rule the world, the truth is Fury, despite his massive size and undoubted talent, still looks like he is learning his boxing on the lamb.
23 year old Fury (18-0, 13 KOs) chose to box out of a southpaw stance for the Rogan fight, later claiming that he was trying different things and that he was ambidextrous. The reality was that the tactic looked like a concerted effort to safeguard Fury’s chin from the big right hands that had troubled him so much in his two previous bouts.
Rogan’s aggression had the Manchester giant backing up for the first two rounds, but a solid knockdown in the third took a lot of steam out of the always game Irishman’s attack. A body shot in the fifth ended it. Fury has now followed up his excellent points win over Dereck Chisora with fights against honest journeyman Nikolai Firtha, the truly awful Neven Pajkic (who managed to floor Fury) and now Rogan, hardly forward steps.
The truth is unless Fury changes his management and his trainer, and sides with the likes of Matchroom and employs a coach of the caliber of Manny Steward to get the best out of him, he is an accident waiting to happen. While the likes of David Price ups the quality of opposition fight after fight, and is making massive improvements as a result, Fury is in danger of going backward. He still has the raw potential to go far in heavyweight boxing, but right now, one would fear for him against anything like a live opponent.
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