Am I Alone In Believing Fury Looked The Real Deal Last Night?

Um, is my boxing brain broken or did I see something that not many other folk did last night?

I was reading through the chat and pretty much nobody gave Fury any credit at all.

Ok, ok he literally was facing a 40 year old cab driver, but this was a cab driver who had beaten decent domestic opposition (Skelton, Harrison, YES HARRISON IS DECENT...ish...) albeit a couple of years ago.

However, Fury came in at an all time lowest weight at 245, but he was actually in very good shape, no beer gut, a formed six pac, no man boobs, genuine pecs.

Ok, we've got to rate it on who else he has faced, a similarish sort of opponent that he has faced was Neven Pajkic, someone who comes and puts on pressure, wrecklessly and wildly. Rogan is a similar opponent to that, arguably better than Pajkic, arguably worse mind you. However, Fury had absolute fits with Pajkic's very limited pressure that he exerted onto him. Much different with Rogan, he actually boxed, moved around the ring, looked fast, sharp, strong and for the first time, defensively sound. (For the most part)

I have most certainly been a huge detractor of Fury, but have been more than happy to change my opinion of him when he gets his act together, genuinely beginning to think it's possible and could actually get himself into even better shape. Now I'm most certainly NOT going to start a "KBros are quaking in there boots" but I think he could ask a few questions of VK in a years time maybe even 6 months, if he's still around then.

Personally I can't see why people would label him a joke after that performance, if David Price had done it, people would be even higher up his hole, but given it was Fury and most have a pretty predetermined opinion of him they would rather detract him further, even when he looks good?

Well that's just my view of it, anyhow, for me personally that performance, was the first time I genuinely believe that he could do something as a boxer.

Personally it's because he ditched the titles to move on to bigger things but then chose to fight a 40 year old who hasn't fought since 2010. Yes he beat the guy in front of him which is all you can do, but I don't think he deserves much credit for beating up and old man. It doesn't prove anything as it's actually a step backwards from his last few opponents.

Drives me even more insane that Mick H is happy to say he's ready to fight Povektin but it won't happen because they won't go to Germany. If he wants a world title he's going to have to go to Germany whether he likes it or not, can see why Carl Froch left him.

He did what he had to do last night, nothing more nothing less, i had the feeling around the second or third that it would be over when he decided to open up a bit more. I don't think he has the mentality to go to the top unless everyone disappears and he's the only decent fighter left. I think Chisora wouls beat him in a rematch and Helenuis/Povetkin would be favourites in my opinion. I would like to see him in with Arreola.

Rogan was very poor in fairness so it's impossible to tell and given that Marty had the better of the first couple of rounds then you could even argue that Fury looked as bad as ever.

Fury reckons he did a better job over Chisora than Vitali did but that's firstly not true and secondly he failed to provide the context that Chisora was in dreadful shape for his fight and in good shape for Vitali.

I would like him to face the K bros to give them the challenge of fighting someone bigger than themselves for once. That siad I would delight in seeing Fury take a hammering.

Personally I think Fury lost the first two rounds, but he appeared to be waiting for him to slow down ever so slightly and pick him apart, sticking to a set out gameplan.

Agree Rogan wasn't great, but it's hard to gauge whether or not he was better than Pajkic, who decked Fury, if he was, then it shows an improvement which quite literally is leaps and bounds.

Also the fact that he was actually in GOOD SHAPE for the first ever time suggests he probably has become better and sharper.

Well the fact he lost the first 2 rounds pretty easily against a 40 year old who is a crude slugger with little power, was off the back of 18 months inactivity and who hadn't beaten a fighter with a more wins than losses since 2009 then no he wasn't all that good. A bloody awful fight and fury has taken a big step back imo. He wants a Kbro but why would they fight him off the back of that.

Genuinely confused here, I don't get it, where has Fury taken a "big step back" he looked genuinely sharp and and in the shape of his life and put in a much better performance than he would have last year due to that.

He lost the first two rounds, yes thats true, he also barely threw a punch and it was a clear gameplan to tire Rogan out a little bit before he started throwing leather himself.

Not a great fight, granted but a huge step back, I really don't see that...

Opposition wise it's a big step back. Against a 40 year old, slow crude slugger who has 18 months ring rust he should look good.

In fairness Alex, I'm not sure how last night's fight can be taken as anything other than a step back, personally. Nine months ago, Fury was fighting - and beating - Chisora, who is demonstrably a decent Heavyweight at world level. Last night, he was fighting Martin Rogan. If that doesn't represent a step back, at least in a career direction sense, then I don't know what does! I'd say the same if Brook, having seen off N'Dou and Hatton in previous fights, was suddenly signing for a fight with Young Mutley, for instance.

All of that said, I'll give Fury some credit, though 'some' is as far as I can stretch. He clearly took his training a lot more seriously than he has at certain other times. Definitely resembled something resembling an athlete, which is encouraging. His defence was sound; nice high guard, caught most of Rogan's earnest efforts on the gloves etc. Once he threw his jab, he was fairly successful with it.

But the thing is, all of that should really be par for the course for him by now, given his world ranking and the noises he's making about taking on the Klitschkos. We're at a stage with Fury where all of that should be a given, rather than a sign of any real improvement on a grand scale.

Fair performance from the big lad, but no more fights of this nature, please.

AlexHuckerby wrote:Genuinely confused here, I don't get it, where has Fury taken a "big step back" he looked genuinely sharp and and in the shape of his life and put in a much better performance than he would have last year due to that.

He lost the first two rounds, yes thats true, he also barely threw a punch and it was a clear gameplan to tire Rogan out a little bit before he started throwing leather himself.

Not a great fight, granted but a huge step back, I really don't see that...

Are you joking? Do you know who rogan is.

He is a journeyman who has wins over Skelton and Harrison and nothing else and that was 3/4 years ago.

After chisora, fury was heavily ranked by ring magazine, boxrec etc and since then he's fought bums and this was the worst of the lot

WHU_Champo_League_in_7Yrs wrote:

AlexHuckerby wrote:Genuinely confused here, I don't get it, where has Fury taken a "big step back" he looked genuinely sharp and and in the shape of his life and put in a much better performance than he would have last year due to that.

He lost the first two rounds, yes thats true, he also barely threw a punch and it was a clear gameplan to tire Rogan out a little bit before he started throwing leather himself.

Not a great fight, granted but a huge step back, I really don't see that...

Are you joking? Do you know who rogan is.

He is a journeyman who has wins over Skelton and Harrison and nothing else and that was 3/4 years ago.

After chisora, fury was heavily ranked by ring magazine, boxrec etc and since then he's fought bums and this was the worst of the lot

What I'm basically saying is that Rogan is better than Pajkic, who Fury struggled with, he didn't struggle in the slightest with Rogan in the slightest, who in my opinion is a bit better than Pajkic, therefore resembling an improvement.

Rogan isn't as good as Pajkic, take in to account the ring rust, the age factor and it really does take away from what Rogan had to offer. Plus Pajkic was an unbeaten fighter.

Well, I guess thats where we disagree, I reckon Rogan could have taken Pajkic last night or at least was roughly the same level.

Well aware of Rogans career, would say to call him a journeyman is a tad harsh.

Rogan is a journeyman, he's lived off wins over Skelton and Harrison but has never been any good, he is a far worse opponent than Chisora. Del Boy isn't anything special himself but incomparably better than Rogan and coming off years of inactivity was a joke of an opponent when a fight with Price could and should have been made.

I actually like Fury as a person from what I have seen but I agree 100% with Chris in that fighting Rogan can only be a step back. He got himself in better shape, fine, but that should be standard.

A year ago Fury was beating Chisora who is at least a euro level performer (I thik hes overrated by many on here though). He was British and COmmonwealth champion. Now hes vacated those titles to face an old Rogan for the Irish heavyweight title. Its definately not progression.

However I dont want to be overly harsh because the guy has had some problems out of the ring that I wasnt previously aware of which should be considered and to some extent Hennessy needs to cop a big share of the blame for not fighting Price, which is nearly inexusable if you are just going to fight Pajiks and Rogans for channell 5 exposure.

Essentially I dont think theres much you can read into his fight against a Rogan standard opponent. All things considered I thought the performance was not much better than a 7/10 given he was so poor in the first couple of rounds. Keep hearing that the fight was some kind of fix which I have no clue about but havent seen much other than just unsubstantiated rumours. Either way Id like to see Fury push on to better opponents.

Many can look good when hitting a punch bag that moves sometimes. Yes Fury did what he had to do. Southpaw??????

K2 are now crapping themselves!

Fury needs to learn how to mix that very cautious style he employed in the first 2 rounds against Rogan with actually throwing some leather. It was nice to see him with a solid guard avoiding wild right hands which his chin seemed to be drawn towards previously but he should mix that with doing enough to win the rounds as well. Being that lazy worked against Rogan as he knew he could get rid of him at any stage but against a better opponent he could dig himself into a bit of a hole on the score cards.

Again Bellchees, I think that it was tactics, I think he was meant to just let Rogan expend energy in the first two chasing him, then start throwing leather after that.

I think to conclude - you ARE alone in thinking Fury looked the real deal last night.

AlexHuckerby wrote:Again Bellchees, I think that it was tactics, I think he was meant to just let Rogan expend energy in the first two chasing him, then start throwing leather after that.

Those were the tactics Audley used against Haye. I see where you're coming from Alex

I think the whole issue is that fighting someone like Rogan will never tell you if a heavyweight is the real deal.

If he struggles or loses to Rogan then fair enough, you can say he isnt ready. But if he wins comfortably it has limited bearing on what his chances at a much higher level would be.

The best thing you can say is that they selected Rogan in orer to try out stuff they have been working on in the gym with a low risk value attached to it. Hence it seemed that Fury was focusing on tightening his defence and obviously trying out fighting southpaw.

I cant think of any other boxer who has changed to southpaw mid career. I know of tennis players who have changed from a single handed back-hand to double handed. That's as drastic change in a sportsman's style I can think of.

I can think of number of fighters that have switched between stances often in fights and could switch hit but cant think of any that have changed stances completely 15 fights into their career.

I think it remains to be seen if Fury will stay southpaw though. Theres a high probablitiy he was just trying it out in a competitive fight.

Yeah his jab was non existant. Assuming the fight was actually legit, I suppose the most impressive aspect of the performance was the body work by Fury but ultimately I cant really take too much away from the fight. It was never going to answer any question marks as to how whether he would be successful at the higher levels.

The first two rounds Fury was poor but once he got the knock down he began to take control of the fight. I would have prefer to see him come out and try and dominate Rogan more aggressively and use his jab to put Rogan on the back foot rather than being content to give away rounds and try and pick him off. But it looked like a glorified training excercise for Fury in the end.

He only thing that the southpaw stance does for him is he isn't too open to a looping right hand ove his jab, the shot that put him down last time out.

The first 2 rounds, he circled the ring (poorly) and almost looked afraid of opening up. His jab was non-existent but his body work was good, tbh he has worked the body quite well in a lot of his fights especially for a big guy.

He is definitely an orthodox fighter but I guess that to save himself going down on the canvas it was a good move. Can't see it working again unless his next opponent is a 40 year old can driver again.

Just watched a replay of the fight and I thought it was pretty poor all round.

Fury fighting southpaw was a bit disrespectful to Rogan and showed the Fury camp didn't give Rogan much chance of winning. The only reason I could see for fighting southpaw was to make it harder for Rogan to connect with a big right hand.

It was hard to look at the fight as anything other than a farce and it was difficult to see how Fury could learn from it or progress his career. Personally I think Fury has been found out and will get sparked when he steps up to world class fights. I can see Hennessy and Channel 5 milking him with mediocre opponents before throwing him in with a Klitschko for a big pay day.

I just don't see the kid making a lot more progress. He has a lot of fight in him but not the skills or the chin. I hope he proves me wrong.

I always feel fighting southpaw usually ends up leaving you more vunerable to lead right hands. It tends to work better against jab oriented fighters.

I agree the southpaw stance can open up a fighter to a lead straight right but that right hand has to travel a long way to connect. Fast hands are needed to land a lead straight hand on a southpaw. Throw in the height difference and Fury taking a step back out of range with a high guard when Rogan threw any meaningful punches left Fury's chin being pretty hard for Rogan to hit.

I can't really take Fury's tactics of going southpaw that seriously. As I said it all seemed a bit of a farce.

I thought he looked pretty good in beating Rogan. I expected him to win but was was impressed with how he fought and stuck to a gameplan.

A solid performance from him.

I think timing and footwork are most impostant overall when you have an orthodox fighter up against a lefty. There probably isnt anyone much better than Hopkins out there at the moment at fighting southpaws and he wouldnt be the quickest fighter. But his strategy is normally centred around timing in throwing lead straight rights, hooks and right handed counters, using his footwork to stay outside and using relatively few jabs.

Not too sure what the plan is for Fury regarding fighting southpaw but I wouldnt have thought it a particularly effective stance for someone like Rogan who tends to pressure and throw big right hands from up close as it leaves you more vunerable to that kind of thing.

It was almost like Fury wanted to invite Rogan onto him and try focusing on picking him off. First two rounds he basically did very little and Rogan outworked him. Once he floored Rogan though he began to look alot more in control.

AlexHuckerby wrote:

However, Fury came in at an all time lowest weight at 245, but he was actually in very good shape, no beer gut, a formed six pac, no man boobs, genuine pecs.

Are you sure you didn't mean to name the title "Am I alone in thinking Tyson Fury looked really hot last night?" Joking aside its his job to be in shape. Up to now he hasn't been doing his job very well but surely he knows he won't go far if he cant at least get in shape.

As for the fight the better young guy beat the worse old guy. No surprises there really. Rogans a 40 year old taxi driver. The fact he beat Harrison and Skelton says more about them than it does about his own ability as a heavyweight.

Hopkins is super slick, a spoiler and hard to hit. He's not that orthodox himself.

For all Rogans bluster in the first couple of rounds he didn't do much more than chase Fury around the ring throwing many punches that didn't get anywhere near to connecting. Early on Fury kept out of range generally and it wasn't long before Rogan started to tire. The fight demonstrated very little to me other than Rogan should hang up the gloves for good.

Yeah but with Hopkins its the general strategy he uses fighting southpaws that I think is effective and is centered around exploited the weakness of the southpaw to the right hand. My general point is though that if Fury was fighting southpaw in order to try and avoid getting clocked by big right hand shots then its probably not the best strategy. Aginst Martin Rogan its fine, but better heavyweights would land the right hand more frequently. It would be ill advised against somebody like Price for example.

I have no doubt that this fight was fixed.

Read online prior to the fight that it was due to end in the 5th.

He got punched by a seemingly nothing hit and dropped. He looked over to his corner twice and he appeared like he was going to get up but his trainer rushed into the ring to stop it when I beleive he could have contiued if he had wanted to. I dont think it is a coincidence especially as it was left to literally the last second of the round for them to throw the towel in!

Fighters going down in rounds that were pre arranged, house fighters getting undeserved decisions, all we need now is to stop black fighters getting title shots and it will be like the 1940s round here again.

Considering Fury fought southpaw on Saturday, he did look ok. It was good to see him come in shape for a change, and good to see his power with his left hand (he knocked Rogan down with his first real punch).

However the tactic to fight southpaw was bizarre. His jab didn't look effective in this stance, hence him losing the first two rounds to a much smaller man, and it isn't a stance he would use in a more competitive fight or against the K2 brothers. Personally I think Fury looked better against Chisora and Nacimento.

Fighting Rogan after Chisora was a step backwards but not the end of the world if he fights competitive opponents from now on. If he goes on to fight the likes of Arreola, Price or Povetkin now then fair play to him. The fear has to be he will continue to be fed journeymen on channel 5 which wont prepare him properly for a fight against the K2 brothers and will waste the talent he does have.

Fury gave up the British title to pursue the Irish title, which says it all, really. However, he did make the point afterwards, I believe, that he was interested in targeting top ten opposition and not just jumping up to fight K2. For this comment, I'll give him credit as I still believe in earning your shot. So, bring on Povetkin or Helenius and let's see what happens. I will be cheering on the big guy.

The_Essence_of_Excellence wrote:I have no doubt that this fight was fixed.

Read online prior to the fight that it was due to end in the 5th.

He got punched by a seemingly nothing hit and dropped. He looked over to his corner twice and he appeared like he was going to get up but his trainer rushed into the ring to stop it when I beleive he could have contiued if he had wanted to. I dont think it is a coincidence especially as it was left to literally the last second of the round for them to throw the towel in!

Where did you read it was a fix?

On another forum- in fact it was a traveller who claimed to be from/or knew Fury's lot.

Obviously I never take anything on the internet, especially a forum, but it's hard not to believe it when you hear other fightings calling what round they will win/lose so their families can win money a la Haye and Froch.

Knowing a cousin of Fury myself must admit i've not heard anything about the fight being a fix.

I know two of his cousins. They are outside the fence trying to break the chain lock on the gate Its just there for show, the gates are magnetically sealed.

To be fair Shah I think everyone will know one of his cousins but was trying to emphasis that passing off hearsay as being factual especially when started on a forum is fairly lame.

I know mate, I wasn't mocking you, there actually were two travellers trying to get on our field at work it happens two or three times a fortnight

Article with quotes below on Fury's southpaw stance.

http://www.irish-boxing.com/2012/04/fury-went-southpaw-to-protect-his-chin-rogie-confused-by-tactic/

------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Jonny Stapleton

MARTIN Rogan claims Tyson Fury’s decision to box southpaw on Saturday night shocked him and caused him major problems.

Whilst Fury, the eventual winner via fifth round stoppage, claims the chance in stance was to protect his chin rather and a specific tactic to fool Rogan.

The Iron Man paid homage to the new Irish champions game plan and backed him to perform at the top of the heavyweight pile.

“I thought Tyson was very good and obviously came out with a better gameplan than me. I had a gameplan with Bernard and we had to switch,“ Rogan explaned.

“I didn’t think Tyson was going to come out and box southpaw. I thought it was just to confuse me for two minutes or something but then it went another round and another round and… I was like ‘what’s going on here? It was like the Audley Harrison fight for me but it all goes back to his trainers. He went in there with a gameplan and executed it better than me. And I didn’t see the punch. With Tyson coming out southpaw, we had a plan to get him moving on to his left. Then he came out and started moving to his left and I was thinking ‘what the  going on here?’ I had a game in my own head with trying to work out what he was doing with his feet. Whoever says he can’t punch – my face will tell you different. He caught me on the front of the rib. I was OK for about a tenth of a second then I was just on the deck. But that’s the way it goes – that’s boxing and I love it.”

Irish Champion, Fury claims southpaw comes as natural as orthodox to him and claims the move came in a bid to protect his sometimes dodgy chin.

The giant heavyweight says the move could be permanent as he feels as strong in the changed stance as he does leading with the left jab.

“I’ve been getting caught a lot in the past with the same right hand over the top after leaving my left hand down after the jab. So I thought for a change I’d go southpaw and leave my right left up to protect myself from those shots. Martin’s got a big right hook so by switching I got out of the way of that.I feel really relaxed as a southpaw and comfortable.

“You can’t have the same gameplan from every fight so I showed I can adapt. I just deal with my opponent. I hit him with some solid shots. It’s the ones you don’t see coming and I wasn’t loading up in my shots, I was just letting them go. When you’re trying to damage to someone it never happens. But at 6ft 9in I’d be in trouble if I couldn’t punch.”