By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (64-3, 53 KOs) says he thinks he’ll be facing WBC heavyweight champ Deontay Wilder (33-0, 32 KOs) in a unification fight at the start of 2016. Klitschko first has to get past Britain’s Tyson Fury, his WBO mandatory challenger.
If Wladimir wins that fight, he’ll likely be facing the talented 6’7” Wilder in a huge fight in early next year. There’s also a slight chance that Wladimir could slip in another title defense in late 2015 before the Deontay fight, although I doubt it.
Wladimir appears to be on course to defend his titles just twice in 2015 instead of three times. It’s going to likely take a lot of time for him to negotiate and market his fight against the 6’9” Fury, because that’s going to be a big deal in Europe. There’s a lot of money to be made for Wladimir from that fight.
“It’s true I never held the WBC title and a unification fight against Deontay Wilder would be fantastic,” Klitschko said via Fightnews.com. “It’s not going to happen next. I think Deontay need to defend his title first time, and probably such fight can happen at the beginning of next year.”
The hard-hitting Deontay is a really bad match-up for Wladimir at this point in his career. Wladimir didn’t look so great last Saturday night in his title defense against Bryant Jennings (19-1, 10 KOs) at Madison Square Garden in New York. While there’s no doubt that Wladimir won the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision, he did not shine against a guy that was throwing almost nothing back at him for 12 rounds.
Jennings looked incredibly timid and feeble on offense, and it was the type of an opponent that Deontay would totally obliterate in one or two rounds. Jennings would have likely been in deep trouble against Deontay had he been facing him last Saturday instead of the indecisive Wladimir. Jennings even won some rounds against Wladimir in losing the fight by the scores of 116-111, 116-111 and 118-109.
What I noticed most of all about Wladimir was his inability to pull the trigger on his shots. He looked like the classic example of an aging fighter who could no longer pull the trigger on his shots. The openings were there for Wladimir to land shots if he’d led his hands go, but he simply wouldn’t or couldn’t pull the trigger. We plenty of jabs from him, but not much else in terms of his offense.
The only way I can see Wladimir beating Fury is if he knocks him out. If he can’t connect with a big left hook or fight hand to put Fury face down on the canvas for the 10 count, I see Fury winning the fight by a 12 round decision. That would likely be bad news for boxing fans because I don’t think Fury would look to face Deontay Wilder in 2016, 2017, or ever for that matter. I get the feeling that Fury doesn’t want any part of the talented Wilder, and if he gets Wladimir’s titles, we could see him going on a long milking run against guys that are made for his style.
The last thing that Fury would need is to face someone that can knock him out with a single punch like Deontay can. I mean, Fury would have no margin of error against a talent like Deontay. The first mistake Fury makes in the first or second round, I see Deontay flattening him with a crushing right hand to the head. Fury is the type that would get up from a knockdown, but against Deontay, it would be his undoing. If Fury staggers to his feet against Deontay, he’ll likely get poleaxed by Deontay’s first punch.
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