Fury Comeback Continues

Well, Tyson Fury did say after his embarrassing comeback ‘fight’ that he would line up something big for later in the year and here he is – Francesco Pianeta! In fairness he did actually promise he’d have a world title by the end of the year. That looks a lot more possible now than it did then. The Wilder rumours are growing stronger and hopefully that fight will be confirmed shortly.

Of course Fury needs to get past this fight first, so just who is Francesco Pianeta? Well he’s a 33 year old German and a veteran of 40 fights of which he’s won 35 with 21 knock outs. Sounds ok so far, but look into exactly who he’s fought and the reputation takes a bit of a nosedive. It’s likely that the only names you’ll notice on Pianeta’s CV are Oliver McCall, who he beat, and Wladimir Klitschko, who dropped him in round six.

Record a bit misleading

McCall was well shot by then of course, fighting Pianeta a good 10 years after he’d been beaten by Frank Bruno. Whilst its eight since Lennox Lewis put him down in Las Vegas. That kind of takes the edge off that win from a German perspective. Klitschko is a different matter of course, no shame in defeat to him. The only problem being that he’s facing one of the few men who weren’t defeated by him in Tyson Fury.

Should get a few more rounds under his belt

It’s easy to criticise the match making again, but one thing you can say is that Francesco Pianeta does tend to see out fights with only 3 KO defeats. That’s just what Fury wants and he’s likely to take his time in dealing with his German opponent. There is an interesting line of form though with Pianeta, as he fought and lost to Kevin Johnson last year. Johnson is set to face Daniel Dubois soon but has already faced Tyson Fury, Derek Chisora and Anthony Joshua. He has lost on each occasion, but going the distance with the first two.

I don’t really like this fight from a betting point of view as I think it will be over when Fury wants it to be. So, unless Tyson gives us a bell before the fight with the plan, I think I’ll leave well alone. What I’d like to see though is a fitter and leaner Fury than last time. Hopefully he can gradually up the pace, shake off some rust and showcase his skills before earning a late knock out. Taking Pianeta out early will achieve precisely nothing as a warm-up for Deontay Wilder or anyone else half-decent.

If that floats your boat you can have Fury to win in rounds 9 or 10 (this is a 10 rounder by the way) at around 5/1.