Tyson Fury has been backed to knock out Anthony Joshua inside three rounds when the heavyweight rivals meet in Cardiff on December 11 to settle their decade-long feud.
Fury will start the fight as the favourite in front of 80,000 fans, and former world champion George Groves has predicted he will finish the job in under nine minutes.
Groves backs Fury for early stoppage
“You’ve got to pick Fury as a solid favourite,” Groves told Grosvenor Sport. “Once he lands on Joshua, I think he knocks him out. It’s too much of a big-pressure fight for them to pull one another around and get rounds. The second Joshua gets clipped on the chin, I think he’s going to go over. Fury is too big.”
Groves added: “He’s not necessarily heavy-handed, but if he’s coming in the ring at 19-plus stone and throws a couple of solid shots, and starts finding his range, I think he hurts Joshua. I think he stops him. It might be really early. I think there’s a strong possibility that this fight is over in the first three rounds.”
Advice to bring in Mike Tyson
Groves also suggested Joshua should hire heavyweight legend Mike Tyson to help him prepare for Fury. “I think Anthony Joshua should bring Mike Tyson in to come up with the plan to beat Tyson Fury,” he said.
“What Joshua could also do is have a bit more of a Mike Tyson-esque style. Joshua could be a little bit more peekaboo, crouching, slipping, sliding, dipping, momentum going forward, bringing those big hooks and uppercuts off those dips, legs loaded.”
“That would be the key to success because even though Joshua is a big, tall man, he gives away a bit of height against Tyson Fury. Getting some advice from a man who carved out a fantastic career always being on the shorter side of things makes perfect sense to me.”
