Tyson Fury and his struggles with the so-called ‘little guys’

Tyson Fury is a mountain of a man.

Standing at 6ft 9in and weighing over 260lbs, Fury so often makes his heavyweight opponents look tiny. That could be seen when he towered over Oleksandr Usyk in their extraordinary 10-minute face-off ahead of their rematch this weekend.

Fury, for all his size advantages, has, however, always struggled with the so-called “little guys.” That description is, of course, relative. A small heavyweight these days stands around 6ft 3in – a giant to the average man, but a hobbit to the towering Fury.

Regardless, Fury has always seemed to struggle with these smaller foes, and this has been clear to those who have followed the career of “The Gypsy King” from the early days. There’s something about these little men that Fury just can’t seem to work out. He so often struggles to keep them at bay, which results in him putting his enormous body weight on them in the hope of tiring them out.

John McDermott is a name that only boxing purists may know – but it’s one Fury will likely never forget. If you were to see McDermott in the street, you would be forgiven for not realizing he had challenged for the British heavyweight title three times. Fury has never had the body of a professional athlete, but little old McDermott made him look like an Adonis when they squared off in 2009. A small, podgy heavyweight, McDermott gave poor old Fury a right run for his money that night, and many were surprised to see him fail to get the nod.

Fury couldn’t seem to tie McDermott down throughout the fight and struggled to get hold of his fleshy figure in the clinches. He was pushed around from pillar to post by the smaller man and seemed to struggle to find his range punching down.

The fight was so controversial that Fury had to face McDermott again a year later. This time, Fury seemed to have found an answer to deal with these tricky small men: just lie on them! McDermott, who didn’t help himself when he turned up in even worse shape for the rematch, was exhausted by the ninth round, and the sneakiest of shots from Fury on the inside caused him to tumble to the canvas.

Fury repeated these dirty tricks when he faced former cruiserweight titleholder Steve Cunningham. He again struggled with a smaller opponent and found himself flat on his back in Round 2 from a looping right hand. He just couldn’t get out of the way of the fast punches coming from low down, and Cunningham seemed to slip inside Fury’s long, slow jab at will.

Fury again reverted to his dirty tactics, taking every opportunity he could to put every ounce of his 254lbs body on the wilting Cunningham. By Round 7 Cunningham’s legs were shot from supporting both his and Fury’s weight, and he was pummeled to the ground.

And who can forget Otto Wallin? The 6ft 5in Swede may not be the smallest heavyweight in the world, but Wallin certainly looked it against Fury that night. Weighing around 230lbs, Wallin was much lighter and quicker than Fury, and gave him real trouble – including a nasty cut that would have stopped any other contest.

If the fight had rightfully been stopped, Wallin would have been awarded a TKO victory that night, but Fury again managed to use his size and edge past the smaller man. Forty-seven stitches later, Fury decided to bin off his trainer Ben Davison and brought in his current coach, Sugarhill Steward.

In their first fight, Fury probably dealt with a smaller foe as well as he ever had – for half the contest. But Usyk decided to push the action, and Fury again just couldn’t keep the smaller man off him. And we all know what happened in the ninth round. What was surprising is that Fury never used the dirty tactics that had brought him so much success against the little men in the past.

Was Fury trying to prove a point – that he was skilled enough to deal with the master boxer Usyk? It could be a very different story this time around. Fury appears big and heavy, and it’s difficult not to imagine him in the rematch using every pound of that weight to lie on poor old Usyk.

Will Usyk be smart enough to stop that from happening? Only time will tell.