Deontay Wilder urged by sparring partner to copy Tyson Fury’s tactics and ‘take the fight’ to Gypsy King in trilogy
DEONTAY WILDER has been urged by his sparring partner to take a leaf out of Tyson Fury’s book and ‘take the fight’ to his heavyweight rival.
Fury drew with Wilder in 2018 after largely outboxing but twice being floored by the American.
But when they rematched two years later, the Brit piled on a stone and switched tactics to aggressively go on the offensive.
It saw Wilder twice dropped himself and then beaten in round seven as he surrendered his WBC title and unbeaten record.
But he has salvaged a crack at redemption after winning his right to a trilogy bout after an arbitration case.
To prepare for the fight, he recruited the help of heavyweight contender Stephan Shaw, who was used before the two prior Fury fights.
And he called on Wilder to gain revenge on Fury by using his own game plan against hum.
Shaw, 28, told SunSport: “I’d take the fight like Fury approached it
“Try and make the best adjustments, because at that level when you have two elite guys in there, it’s all about adjustments.
‘DEONTAY’S LOOKING SHARP’
“Who can make those adjustments? The other guy might come out with a better jab, so I’d have to make the adjustments to get away from that jab.
“You have to be ready to make adjustments, because Tyson Fury, he might not be the most skilled fighter but he’s big, he’s kind of awkward and he’s a smart fighter.
“He’s a great thinker in there and especially with the minds of (trainer) SugarHill Steward added to his team, that’s only going to make him even better, like he did in the second fight.”
Shaw was brought in to Wilder’s camp for two weeks to help give a Fury-esque look.
But that was before the trilogy bout was postponed from July 24 to October 9 due to the Gypsy King testing positive for coronavirus.
It put a halt to Wilder’s preparation, which had been going to plan, 14-0 Shaw reports.
He said: “It’s been great work, Deontay’s looking sharp, he’s looking pretty good.”
Shaw is on a path of his own, but has also already shared the ring in sparring with the likes of Andy Ruiz Jr, 31, and Dominic Breazeale, 35.
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He said: “From going with Andy Ruiz or Deontay Wilder, it shows me what I want in my camp or what I don’t want, how to construct it.
“Going down there with Deontay, it definitely let me know how to conduct myself as a world champion.
“It shows me how a training camp from a world champion’s perspective is run. How they conduct everything.”
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