The Fight Site Boxing Preview: Fury vs Whyte
Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank Inc via Getty Images
Only one really big event this week, so with no ado whatsoever let’s have a look at the headliner and what there is to see of the undercard.
Tyson Fury vs Dillian Whyte
Let’s be clear right at the outset: the interest here is in the personalities, not the level of contest. Whyte has sometimes been underrated - while technically rough, he tends to have a pretty decent ring IQ and some depth to his game beyond the brawler he’s usually seen as- but he’s got very little for Tyson Fury here. The problem is twofold: first, he might have more depth than he’s reputed to, but he’s still technically way below Fury, and second, the athletic difference here is absolutely outrageous. Fury is one of the most gifted athletes we’ve seen in the sport at heavyweight, whereas Whyte… can kind of move about, sometimes? A lot is being made in some quarters in the buildup of Whyte’s power, but Fury has a better KO ration despite spending much of his career as a rangy point-fighter, so there’s not much advantage there either.
So, style wise, Whyte is most comfortable moving backwards, but not too fast (he tends to lose his balance if pushed too fast- it almost seems to be another athletic problem, though I can’t claim to know for sure), and letting the opponent take the lead so he can counter. Whether he can keep Fury to his tempo is the question (to which the answer is no) - if the champion decides to march in Whyte’ll have some window of opportunity but then find himself being pushed back faster than he’s comfortable, and that power will be even less effective if off-balance. If Fury decides to box at range himself, then Whyte is neither fast enough nor big enough nor good enough at pressing forward to have any serious chance of success. Ultimately it’s going to be Fury’s to win any way he wants it, unless he’s just had some kind of training breakdown - which isn’t completely out of the question.
So, we’ll be here for the show, and it’s fair to say while there doesn’t appear to be any dislike between the boxers themselves - plenty of dislike between Whyte and Fury’s dad, though- they’re both outsize characters so… well, they’ll make this an event I guess.
The undercard, sadly, is dire. The best-matched fight on it is a showdown at featherweight between Isaac Lowe and Nick Ball. Lowe is coming off a loss to Luis Alberto Lopez in December but has performed well at British and European level before that, whereas Ball is a rising 25-year-old best recognised for being very small - 5 foot 2 at featherweight- and insanely aggressive. It’s not entirely clear if he’ll be on Lowe’s level yet, but he’s unlikely to let it be boring.
Other than that, Ekow Essuman’s fight with Darren Tetley has been moved up a week to fill things, out. Essuman is a very exciting fighter, rumbling forward with barages of punches- Tetley was at one stage a solid prospect, but he hasn’t beaten anyone with a winning record since 2018 and I don’t expect that to change here. Past that, all we’ve got is Tommy Fury trying to attract Jake Paul’s attention again, and a couple of decent prospects in David Adeleye and Karol Itauma, but in fights they’ll be expected to walk through. Mostly worth watching if you want to note who will hopefully be in much better fights later in the summer.