Tyson Fury has two wins and one draw against Deontay Wilder in a historic trio of fights between 2019 and 2022.
They saw him win the WBC crown and rise back to the top of the heavyweight tree, but not without taking plenty of punishment via a number of severe knockdowns in the first and third bruising battles.
And Wilder’s trainer thinks that the damage his man inflicted has ‘changed Fury for good.’
Speaking to FightHype, former heavyweight contender turned coach Malik Scott was asked about the toll the bouts took on ‘The Gypsy King.’
“Even Fury believes the Deontay Wilder fights changed him. You don’t have three fights with Wilder and it don’t change you.
You know, every fight he’s had with Deontay, these weren’t one or two-round fights. He’s gone over 24 rounds with the hardest puncher in the history of the sport.
People are highlighting the times he got knocked down, but what about the punches he was taking in the fight, taking good shots and coming back. Those shots are damaging too.”
Scott went on to assess Fury’s wider career and the ‘wear and tear on his body.’
“He’s 35 years young but to me Fury has put a lot of wear and tear on his body. Not just the Deontay fights, early on in his career he took damage in the first Chisora fight, he was knocked down with Cunningham. The gym, he’s always had high-quality sparring. He’s 35 but father time is undefeated.”
His final thought was about the change in style Fury has undergone since moving to his current trainer SugarHill Steward out of Detroit’s famously aggressive Kronk Boxing Gym.
“In my opinion, the Ben Davison-style don’t get hit Fury is the best Fury. But that’s not very TV-friendly. The Kronk-style Fury is very TV-friendly.”
Fury will be hoping Scott is wide of the mark and that he can get back to his best in his next fight against Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world.