By John F. McKenna (McJack): Just last fall 6’9” Tyson Fury (18-0, 13 KO’s) admitted that he was not yet ready to take on either one of the Klitschko’s and acknowledged that he needed more experience before fighting either of the dominant heavyweight champions. Now after defeating 42 year old Martin Rogan (17-3, 7 KO’s) to win the Irish heavyweight championship Fury believes, or says he believes, that he is ready to take on a Klitschko.
It is hard to fathom the reasoning of the charismatic and entertaining fighter. Does Tyson really believe he gained that much experience against an over the hill fighter who was hopelessly outclassed? Fighters are famous for being in denial and being the last ones to see what is so glaringly obvious to everyone else. In his fight with Rogan, Fury decided to go southpaw. Usually when a fighter switches to a southpaw stance he does it for a short period of time. That was not the case however with Fury who stuck with the southpaw stance for a major portion of the fight. Against an opponent with Rogan’s credentials Tyson was able to pull it off successfully. It is not known whether or not Fury will also adopt the southpaw stance for future fights.
Boxing pundits were left scratching their heads when Fury made the announcement that he wants to pursue a Klitschko fight. He may have been influenced to some extent by the trouble Dereck Chisora gave Vitali Klitschko in February. Although clearly losing to Vitali in that fight, “Del-Boy” gave a reasonably good account of himself and was somewhat competitive throughout. Perhaps Fury is buoyed in comparing his own win over Chisora to Vitali’s.
It should be noted however that the Chisora who faced Fury last July was not the same fighter who fought Vitali Klitschko in February. Prior to his fight with Tyson, Dereck did not train as he should have and came into the ring out of shape. For the Klitschko fight Chisora was tuned in and ready to go to war.
In addition, the injury to Vitali’s left shoulder in the 4th round of the Chisora fight prevented him from effectively using his left hand for the balance of the fight.
It may be that Fury feels that he has nothing to lose in taking on a Klitschko and losing. At 23 years old he would still have a career ahead of him. With Wladimir tied up for the time being with a fight against Tony Thompson in July and a tentative fight with Chris Arreola in November, he would most likely face Vitali. “Dr. Ironfist” presently has no challengers who are locked in to fight him, and is in the position of having to troll for potential contenders.
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