Best Heavyweight in the UK Today

[mickey1975]

Fury is proven at domestic level.

[lillywhite14]

I know he is proven, just wondered why Mickey says he ain't yet presumably would say Fury is.

Christ knows! To say Haye is unproven but Fury is, is like saying Spurs are proven in the Champions League but Chelsea aren't

They ain't though. Abramovich FC is

[benaldo]

It's been strange reading some of the posts on this thread; not because people are "wrong" or that I feel I'm more right, but because I actually know some of the people being talked about. As it happens I know the Fury's very well (I am writing a book about them) and what I can add to the debate is this -

Tyson is a fighter, first and foremost. He loves fighting.

Hughie Fury is an immensely talented boxer who is NOT "out of shape" (I've watched him train....a lot).

Peter Fury is the key to it all. That man is a modern day training genius. The whole team rely on him, his methods, his boxing know-how, and his intelligence in calling the tactics for a fight. When he sin't around, things are very, very different - Fury Vs Cunningham is a really good example.

Hughie is 18, still physically growing, has a (excuse the cliché, but it's true) "granite" chin, and I really do tip him to get to the top. Some people wonder if his chin has been tested, but I can tell you that Hughie spars Tyson every single week, and those boys don't hold back.......at all! Let me show you what I mean - The Team employed a current undefeated US heavyweight boxer (who will remain nameless for the sake of libel and his own sense of worth) last year for some sparring. After the 3rd sparring session two things happened 1) He earned the nickname "man", because every time Tyson hit him he turned to the corner and shouted "MAN", and 2) He refused to come out of his hotel, eventually flying home 4 days early.

I know there is a large unit of Fury haters out there, I can't understand why. Take it from me, this family mean business and they take things very seriously indeed. The fact they do it out of the glare of the media, in private training camps, lacking hangers on, nightclubs, and the normal PR circus just adds to the serious nature with which they take the sport.

WE'll find out who "the best" in the UK is soon enough............

[lillywhite14]

I like Tyson Fury, I don't know much about Hughie, although, physically, he looks quite soft ( not that dissimilar to how Tyson used to be )

Plenty here like Tyson too.

Sounds like you are ever so slightly biased though Benaldo!

[rm1]

I agree hughie has talent but it worries me they are rushing him-he needs time to develop physically.

[polecateddy]

At this stage it's fairly obvious the only reliable heavy weight is Tyson Fury. Haye too inactive. And Price is potentially chinny.

[rm1]

who voted for Richard Towers ? and why is he so inactive he needs to fight more often he's getting on and frankly he needs the practice.

[warriorbox]

I read a good article yesterday Bunce did a few weeks ago, I think it explains where Tyson has gone wrong with his PR and I suspect is also a sly (and justified imo) dig at Hennessy - I'm sure most will have read it already but here it is anyway:

Lets get one thing straight: he got dropped by a really good fighter! As I said in last week's column, if Steve Cunningham had got the decision he deserved against Tomasz Adamek back in December he would have been waiting to sign a lucrative deal to fight either Wladimir Klitschko or Vitali Klitschko. Instead, he got stitched up and Adamek became the No. 1 contender. How, in that process, has Cunningham become a bum? It makes no sense. Any athlete can have a bad day, but Cunningham didn't have one - he just didn't get the decision. If he had, Tyson Fury wouldn't have been fighting him.
The problem was that in the build-up to the fight, Fury was guilty of putting Cunningham down. Anybody that has read this column or listened to the podcast will know that this was always going to be a hard fight. Getting caught, getting hurt, or even getting stopped was always a possibility - and that's how the fight should have been sold, not as a massacre.

In the build-up Fury went as far as saying: "If I don't knock him out, I'm going to retire". Instantly he'd backed himself into a corner. He did knock Cunnningham out in the end; being three stone heavier and six inches taller, Fury wore Cunningham down over six rounds and then used a fantastic elbow block - last seen in the UFC octagon - and whipped across a right hand to knock his exhausted opponent out.
In boxing there have always been lippy fighters - long before Muhammad Ali was predicting the round that he'd deliver his knockout there was Jack Johnson, who used to prophesise all sorts of doom and gloom for his opponents that came true in the ring. Talking yourself up and delivering is not a problem. But when you're dropped, when you lose a point for holding - and that's the only way you can survive the round - people point to what you said before the fight and ask: why were you struggling against a bum?
I've spoken with many people since the fight, some in boxing and other casual fans, and they're all saying the same thing - "Yeah, but we all know Cunningham was rubbish." How do they know that? Because of what Fury said about him in the build-up to the fight. Now that is rubbish! He was a good fighter, and the contest was sold incorrectly.
Always praise your opponent when you're heading into a hard fight. Someone in Fury's camp should have pulled him to one side six weeks ago and said: "Cunningham can fight a bit, Tyson. Maybe you need to pull back on the fact that he's a bum and you're going to destroy him."
Here's what Fury should have said, as I told his team two weeks ago: "Steve Cunningham should be the No. 1 contender for the world heavyweight title. He's the best fighter I've met, and the best American heavyweight out there." How much better would his win look now? As it is, he tarnished his own victory by touting it as a mismatch.

http://www.espn.co.uk/boxing/sport/stor ... QxK9uIh.99

[gazzman87]

If Dillian Whyte made the list why didn't Gary Cornish. Just on the basis of more fights. They're both not that great but still.