Fury Says he'll be his Heaviest Ever for the Joshua Fight

The last time Tyson Fury said he would come in extra heavy and go looking for an early knockout, few people believed him.

In the first fight with Deontay Wilder, he whittled his body down to 256.5 lbs and tried to use his feet and reflexes to prevent the American from landing his fearsome right hand. It worked for many of the rounds but Wilder was still able to find the target and put Fury down in the 9th round and almost out cold in the 12th.

The idea of coming in heavy for their rematch and taking the fight to the Bronze Bomber sounded suicidal to most. 

But true to his word, Fury came in at a career-heaviest 273 lbs and looked to bully Wilder from the first bell. It must have dawned on Fury that this was the right approach when he studied what happened after that final round knockdown in their first match. Fighting on instinct, he'd abandoned his safety-first tactics and traded with Wilder. And he actually got the better of him.

By electing to go on the front foot in the rematch, he applied exhausting pressure on Wilder, made worse by him leaning his giant frame on him in the clinches. And though he didn't use his feet to stay out of trouble, he was still able to dodge and block Wilder's right hand.

I believe Tyson really will come in at a new career-heaviest weight against Joshua. But why?

Joshua is considered "damaged goods' by many, if not most observers. The decent chin that saw him recover from a devastating right hand from Vladimir Klitschko in 2017 seems to have long deserted him. In his last fight against the unheralded Kristian Prenga, Joshua was dropped quite heavily by an uppercut that didn't look particularly hard.

The excellent DAZN pundit, Barry Jones has noticed another issue with AJ that's just as concerning. He no longer seems able to see the punches coming. The uppercut by Prenga is a good example of this, but it also happened, with disastrous consequences when he was caught by an overhand right in the first round against Daniel Dubois. 

AJ was retreating with a low guard and thought he was out of range. The right hand that caught the point of his chin was the beginning of the end for him. 

Fury may be calculating that Joshua is still dangerous. His power and accuracy are as good as they ever were. For as long as AJ's in the match, he'll be a threat. This is a fight that he's waited more than ten years for and there is no doubt that he will give it his all.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but the safest course of action is probably to go in guns blazing and try to take him out as quickly as possible.