Here we go again: a British boxer is set to fight a relative unknown in the USA this weekend as part of his journey toward becoming the unified Heavyweight champion of the world. According to the odds, it will be a cakewalk for Fury, a mere formality to shake off any ring rust before his rematch with Deontay Wilder. However, it wasn’t long ago that we were saying the exact same thing about Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz Jr, and look how that turned out.
Tyson Fury (1/50)
The odds on this fight are almost exactly the same as the Joshua/Ruiz fight, with one big exception – the odds for Fury are half what Joshua was given, at a mere 1/50 as opposed to 1/100. The thinking is that Schwarz’s European orthodox style will be too basic to prove any sort of challenge for the more mobile Fury. Fury claims that he’ll have his opponent figured out within the first 10 seconds of the fight, but oddsmakers are being a bit more careful, preferring to lean toward a round 7 or 8 win at odds of 9/1.
Tom Schwarz (11/1)
So what do we know about Tom Schwarz? Well, he’s German, 25 years old and stands 6 foot 5 inches tall. He’s ranked the number 2 heavyweight in the world by the WBO, but their rankings are a bit of a mess. For example, Andy Ruiz Jr has taken his rightful place at the top of the list as the titleholder but is also ranked no. 11. Schwarz comes in at no. 3 behind Ruiz and Dillian Whyte, one place ahead of Tyson Fury (despite the ridiculous odds). And Anthony Joshua doesn’t make the list at all, so maybe this is more of an indication of how boxing is eating itself rather than any measure of skill.
His record is 24-0, with 16 KOs, his most recent win being a stoppage over Kristijan Krstacic in the second round. Probably the most interesting fight in his back catalogue is an absolute disaster of a bout against Senad Gashi. Gashi, the shorter man, was beating Schwarz pretty handily but got a bit carried away and headbutted his opponent three times. After the first, Schwarz dropped with speed and tragedy of a Premier League forward and then lay there for significantly longer than a 10-count before getting to his feet and resuming the fight. Gashi was disqualified after the third alleged butt and a brawl ensued. Like Ruiz, he’s been given 100/1 for most rounds except for five, six and seven, so those expecting unexpected history to unexpectedly repeat itself, these are the rounds for you.
Also on the night…
Start the night off the right way with some fantastic action from the Featherweight division, with Josh Warrington defending his IBF belt against the awesomely named Kid Galahad. Warrington made an army of new fans after a completely mad fight against Carl Frampton, so expect fireworks from Sheffield. Warrington is a considerable favourite, but for odds on both fighters plus a huge range of other betting options, check out our boxing page.
