Ahead of the weekend’s huge heavyweight fight between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder, we caught up with Lennox Lewis for his thoughts on the bout.
Dodging the power
“If Tyson Fury can stay away from Deontay Wilder’s power then, for me, he wins. He’s got to be careful not to start throwing the combos too recklessly. But he can use the Wilder power to his advantage, allow him to throw and miss and then he needs to step in there to take his chance. That’s the difference he needs to make from the first fight.”
On the defensive
“Fury is a lot more difficult to hit than Wilder. He offers up all sorts of different angles, he moves well and he’s evasive. He makes life difficult for his opponent and, if we wound back the clock, I’d rather fight Wilder than Fury as Wilder’s just a bit more one-dimensional.”
Letting down his guard
“I remember people would scream at me during my career when I boxed with my hands down, but I felt comfortable doing that. It’s the same thing with Fury when he gives his side of the head to the guy or else goes around the ring with his hands around his back. I don’t like him taking those chances, but only he knows what’s right.”
The knockout
“People say that Fury’s not a knockout puncher, but everyone has that knockout punch in them, especially the heavyweights, and particularly a guy that measures at 6ft 9in. For him to say he’s going for that, it’s fair to believe he can step up, do that and make the fight shorter.”
Lennox Lewis’ prediction
“Fury on points, although it could go shorter.”
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