By Scott Gilfoid: Now that Wladimr Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) has been dethroned, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) smells blood in the water and wants to go after newly crowned IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) to take his four world titles before someone else beats him to it.
Wilder, 6’7”, now recognizes himself as the best of the heavyweight world champions now that Wladimir is a thing of the past. Wilder could very well be correct in viewing himself as the best in the heavyweight division, because Fury, 6’9”, certainly didn’t look that great tonight in squeaking out a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 115-112, 115-112 and 116-111 at the ESPRIT Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Wilder may have to wait in line for a shot at Fury, because he’s going to have to face Wladimir in a rematch due to the rematch clause he had in the contract. A second fight between Wladimir and Fury will play out within the first half of 2016, depending on if the two fighters can get the contract for the rematch properly negotiated, and if the two of them can stay injury free long enough for the fight to come off.
Whether Wilder gets a unification fight with Fury will also depend on whether Fury and his management wants that fight or not. They can probably make more money by avoiding Wilder and focusing on milking his titles against the top contenders. The highest ranked contenders for the IBF, WBA and WBO titles at this moment are as follows: Luis Ortiz, Vyacheslav Glazkov, and Charles Martin. I don’t think Fury can beat Ortiz, but he can probably defeat Glazkov and Martin. If Fury wants to milk his titles for a while, he’s got little in the way of a threat with the IBF and WBO. Ortiz is a different story, of course.
I'M OFFICIALLY THE BEST HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMP OF THE WORLD! Haters can acknowledge it or look foolish trying to deny it. pic.twitter.com/5XpjDf4o8P
— Deontay Wilder (@BronzeBomber) November 29, 2015
I do agree that Wilder is now the best of the heavyweight champions now that Wladimir has been exposed as an over the hill fighter after tonight’s loss to Fury. There’s no one that can compete with Wilder right now in terms of heavyweight champions. Wilder would have done very, very well tonight if he were in the ring with Fury instead of Wladimir. I’m just saying. Wilder wouldn’t have had problems letting his hands go in the way that Wladimir was. Can you imagine Wilder not throwing his right hands against Fury? I can’t. Wilder’s best punch is his right hand, and he sure as heck wouldn’t hold it back the way that Wladimir was with his own punches. I don’t think Wladimir chose not to throw punches because he was afraid. I think it was a situation where he didn’t have the reflexes to fire off his shots when he did see an opening.
I see you @Tyson_Fury…. #ImComingForYou
— Deontay Wilder (@BronzeBomber) November 28, 2015
While Wladimir wanted to go after Wilder’s WBC heavyweight title in order to add it to his collection before retiring, I don’t think Fury has the same desire. He’s not been vocal about wanting to win the WBC title. He was more focused on targeting the weak link among the heavyweight champions in Wladimir. It was kind of like Miguel Cotto targeted an over-the-hill 39-year-old Sergeio Martinez in 2014 in order to win the WBC middleweight title. Fury waited Wladimir out until he was old to fight him, and then was able to beat when he got old. I don’t think for a second that Fury would have been able to beat the 2004 version of Wladimir. He was much different fighter a decade ago compared to now. My guess is Fury will stay far, far away from Wilder. I don’t see Fury having the same interest that Wladimir did in trying to win the WBC heavyweight title. It’s too dangerous to fight a guy like Wilder, because he’s faster, stronger and almost as tall as Fury.
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