By Scott Gilfoid: A day after beating the aging 39-year-old Wladimir Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision to pick up his IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight title belts, Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) says he has no interest in getting into the ring to face the hard hitting talented American Deontay Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) for his WBC heavyweight title.
Fury says his focus right now is on facing Klitschko in a rematch in 2016, and after that he’ll go from there. Klitschko had a rematch clause in his contract with the 6’9” Fury for their fight last Saturday night in front of 55,000 screaming fans at the ESPRIT Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany.
The rematch clause is for an immediate rematch with no other fights in between, which means that Wilder can’t get a fight again Fury next even if that’s something that Fury actually desired. That doesn’t seem like it’s the case though.
“Why do we need to mention Deontay Wilder? Let’s laugh at his name, shall we! Why would I be bothered about a novice like Wilder?” Fury said via Fightnews.com. “He’s [Wilder] a basketball player who took up boxing a couple of years ago. I’m a true natural fighter. I’ve been doing it all my life. So, if Deontay Wilder wants a unification fight he is going to have to wait because Wladimir Klitschko has a round-two.”
I smell fear from Fury. It sounds like he doesn’t want any part of mixing it up with Wilder with his one-punch power. I can’t say I blame him. Wilder is the heavyweight division’s version of Gennady Golovkin right now in my view, and I can definitely see why a weak puncher like Fury wouldn’t want to get inside the ring with him.
We saw last night how Wladimir Klitschko had Fury looking shaky on his feet when he clipped him with a hard right hand late in their fight. That was one of the very few right hands that Wladimir threw in the fight. Now just imagine if that had been Wilder in the ring with Fury last night. Wilder would have gone right hand crazy from the 1st round, and I think Fury would have been fortunate to make it to the 2nd without flopping around on the canvas like a fish out of water.
You notice how Fury chooses to downgrade the 6’7” Wilder by saying he’s a “novice” and a “basketball player” rather than commenting on the fact that Wilder is the current WBC heavyweight title and a bronze medalist from the 2008 Olympics. The last time I checked, Fury didn’t fight in the Olympics. As such, Wilder has credentials that Fury doesn’t possess despite the fact that he had an earlier start than Wilder in boxing.
What this tells you is that it doesn’t matter if a fighter has a slightly earlier start than another one. The cream always rises to the top. If a guy is born gifted as Wilder was with the boat loads of talent that he has going for him, then it really doesn’t matter much that he didn’t have a pair of boxing gloves on him when he was in the crib as a baby. Wilder has the athleticism and intelligence to pick up the game in his early 20s, and excel far beyond fighters with an earlier start than him in the sport.
Wilder, 6’7”, has to do his part to stay in the running for a shot against Fury by beating his next still to be determined opponent on January 9th next year, and then beating his WBC mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin after that. Wilder could be facing Vyacheslav Glazkov next in January as a warm-up fight for the 6’2” Povetkin.
Wilder should have no problems beating either of these guys to get in position for a unification fight against the winner of the rematch between Fury and Klitchko. We already know that Wladimir wants to face Wilder so that he can try and add the final heavyweight title that he’s never had in his collection before.
If Wladimir can beat Fury in a second fight, which is very possible if he can double his pitiful 19 punches thrown per round that he averaged last Saturday, then we could very well be speaking about a fight between Wilder and Wladimir in the second half of 2016. If Fury doesn’t want to man up to face Wilder, then perhaps Wladimir will if/when he beats Fury in their rematch in the first half of 2016.
Comments are closed.