Fury/AJ v 80s Heavy champions..

Fury v Holmes.... Hard to call this one.....Holmes looked ordinary against Williams and Bonecrusher probably the only taller and half decent foe he fought post Norton....Then again he was getting on in age.  Fury could bring puzzles that Holmes never encountered but I'm not sure he could stop Holmes who had a busy jab and could fight for 15.

Think Holmes outworks him but I wouldn't bet my Father in laws House or maybe I would...Holmes w15..

Joshua v Holmes....Holmes fought a lot of stiffish jab/right hand/left hook types but then again Weaver and Snipes hurt him..
But I like Holmes late...Unlike Fury Josh would be easier to hit with his jab.


Fury v Tubbs....Lean Tubbs loved to fight backing up and he was cuter and quicker than Wilder but he lacked a shot...Could he stop Fury taking liberties ??...Tubbs stopped big hitting Crusher taking them but not Witherspoon or Page early..

Fury by decision..

Joshua v Tubbs...A fairly predictable powerful 6ft 4 Bonecrusher was outboxed and outsped by Tubbs in 84 and Josh though better than Smith is still predictable...Still Josh is bigger and to his credit found something against Wlad and Povetkin..

Pickem....


Fury v Thomas.....Watched a few of Pinky's old fights and think he is a tad overrated...Lethargic with a decent jab mostly..Fed on a typical Tim awol night.. Awful against Berbick and average against Coetzee...Ratcliff and Weaver..

Fury outworks him...

Joshua v Thomas....Josh has more power than Fury and Pinky was easy to hit...Beats him easier probably by late retirement..


Fury v Witherspoon.....Timmy was the best defensive fighter of the 80s when he was hungry...A hungry Tim takes Fury into the later rounds after working him like he did with Gonzales by always appearing in range....Stops Fury late..

Joshua v Witherspoon.....As above only earlier...Witherspoon was a waste of talent and a big disappointment.


Fury v Tyson....An 86/87 Tyson is a top 3 Heavy of alltime....Gets inside and destroys Fury early..

Joshua v Tyson...Ko1....


Fury v Holy.....Intriguing fight....But Holy's heart...Triple left jab and stamina would be tough for a generally leisurely Tyson...However if Fury lands it could be good night as Cooper showed Holy could be hurt by a blown up cruiser..But Fury usually needs to load up and Holy wasn't easy to hit with combinations.

Holy too busy..Fury's lack of genuine one punch power hurts him also..

Joshua v Holy....This would be more interesting...Rodrigues landed cleanly in the 1st against Holy...Dokes had success....Joshua is bigger and more powerful than them and he punches straight...

Styles make fights and I'm going for a Joshua upset....Lands the big shot like in Bowe v Holy 3 and Evander can't recover.. Loses the rematch though..

I pick Fury and Josh over the rest of the 80s champions...Page bar Gerrie, lost his biggest fights...Coetzee was ordinary...Dokes probably would be coked up...Tucker plodded too much....Tate too accident prone and Weaver/Smith/Berbick were overachieving trialhorses...As for Spinks they both tag him eventually.


Cheers and hope you guys are surviving in these trying times..

Note   I know Holy was Champ in the 90s but artisttic licence is a great thing.

Good analogy Truss - hope you and yours are doing well.

I know he was a 90s Champ but I would have loved to have seen what a late 80s Bruno would do to both fighters. He had a very underrated ramrod jab and carried serious power. I think he puts Fury off very early, probably putting him down - Fury either takes a razor thin decision or Frank lays a big right hand, left hook combo on Tyson and it's goodnight Harry.

As for AJ I think this could be a firefight. If they were both to go at it from the first bell, it's a genuine question of who lands first. So that one wouldn't go the distance. Frank early or AJ in 5.

Crossed my mind too about Frank, Bouncy........Have a feeling Joshua v Bruno probably ends when one of them is tagged also....However Joshua is more likely to recover from a good shot than Frank (though Frank had a better chin) as we all know he lacked a survival instinct.....But Frank had a world class jab and could work from it as the great Lewis found out....Longer it goes suits AJ....But pickem for sure.

I go with your prediction with that one....

Fury harder to hit but Johnson decked him and Wilder found him....Same thing applies about the longer it goes etc.....

Have to fancy Fury to beat him more than AJ but wouldn't stake my life on either..

Great fights..

My family is well thankyou and hope vice versa.....

Agree that Big Pants Larry has too many tricks up his shorts for both AJ and Fury...But Fury v Holy.Well after rewatching the Holy/Lewis scraps, it really seemed to me that Holy didn't know what to do about the sheer mass of the opponent in front of him.Can't in good faith give Holy a W over Fury, much as I like him generally- plus you didn't mention that Fury gives him all kind of headaches with his movement and counter punching-after Holy loads up, Fury exploits his lack of balance for sure.Holy got away with stuff that he wouldn't do against a true "super" heavy, let alone one who is able to move nimbly and has the gift of finding openings which nobody else does.Cheers

Fury has never fought anyone with Holy's workrate.....Worth remembering Lewis v Holy happened after three Bowe wars and a 11th round war with Tyson..

The 6ft 4 Douglas famous for his jab found Holy's speed and triple jab too much.....Fury has never beaten anyone approaching Holy's class.

But your points are interesting and your opinion is welcome..

I don't want to be unkind about Douglas, but it was a pretty depressing bout with Real Deal. Personally I think that Douglas is not given the credit he deserves in the round because the focus is always on his fight with Mike.I really like Douglas and a peak Douglas against a less shop-soiled Holy in my eyes is a 'pickem'.

I always felt that Douglas put so much effort into winning the title it ended him as a fighter. He fought pretty much the perfect fight against Tyson, and once he'd got those belts he knew no-one could ever take the achievement away from him (even though King tried with the "long-count" protest). As Marvelous Marvin said "It's difficult to get up and go training when you're wearing silk pyjamas!"

In a theoretical world though, I agree with Derek - the Douglas who fought Mike would be a handful for anyone.

Fair points from you guys....However I think the 25 million payday for the Holy fight was more the reason Douglas didn't turn up in great shape......

But he beat future champ Mccall...Outboxed Tucker for 9 until he dogged it and his handspeed against Holy was still quicker than Fury's yet Holy outboxed and outspeeded him....Holyfield's jab to the chest was a real sickener and his heart unequalled......

We see what we see.......But Fury would be fighting at a pace that wouldn't suit him and he would be fending of a guy throwing four to five punch combinations..Which would be new to him..

Thanks for the replies....Good stuff.

I'm very late to the party, but nice original post, Truss.

With Joshua I think it's generally (maybe not quite always) a case of whether you fancy him to stop his opponent or not, because when I look at a lot of names here I just don't see Joshua outpointing them. He's a decent 'boxer' overall but at the highest level he's nothing special at all in that regard. Needed some serious hometown cooking to be ahead on two cards before the Wlad stoppage, stank the place out with Parker, didn't look too clever when he was standing off Povetkin and trying to outbox him on the outside there either etc.

I've actually found myself wondering in the past few years if McCracken and the rest of Joshua's team have got too wrapped up in the idea of trying to make him the 'complete fighter' and have taken a bit of an edge away from what he's really good at.

Anyway, for pure spectacle if I could put Joshua in there with any of them I think him against Holyfield has the best chance of producing a classic. Would love to see that.

Joshua does remind me of Bruno....Very one dinensional but in Frank's defence he had a World class jab....Witherspoon...Smith and McCall all struggled with it...

I also think the straight punching Frank would be all wrong for Wlad who spoiled in a straight line...Sanders showed what a straight puncher could do...

Frank certainly beats Wilder early unless Wilder pulls out a shot.

So the fact I pick Bruno to beat all of Fury and Joshua's best opponents kind of says everything.

Think Fury has enough cuties to do okay in any era...Joshua is pretty ordinary..

But in fairness ordinary is enough....Joyce...Usyk..Dubois shouldn't be a problem for him..

Already bored of the spin that Usyk who sneaked past Chisora is a 50/50 fight...