By Scott Gilfoid: For what it’s worth, former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) says he won’t be retiring after his listless 12 round unanimous decision loss to Britain’s Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) last Saturday night despite his dreadful performance. Wladimir says he’ll be using his rematch clause in his contract to get a second fight with Fury. One can only hope that the second fight will be better than the first.
Klitschko, 39, believes he can do better than he did in that fight, which is why he intends on fighting the younger 27-year-old Fury a second time. Wladimir thinks that the interest in a second fight against Fury will be high, and he’s probably right about that. A lot of boxing fans will tune in if for no other reason to see if Fury can retire Wladimir by beating a second time.
Wladimir isn’t saying whether or not he’ll hang up the gloves if he gets beaten for a second time against Fury, but he should seriously consider doing that if he does lose. The problem is that if Wladimir can’t even beat a fighter like Fury, then it would suggest that the writing is on the wall that he would lose badly to the real talents in the division like Deontay Wilder.
“It’s been four days now and I need some time to understand what happened and to decide my next steps,” Wladimir said in a statement. “After an 11-year winning streak, I now begin to realize that you are even greater in defeat. I received many messages over these last few days. Your kind words and blessings are helping me get through this rough time. The Klitschko story will continue. Failure is not an option.”
I don’t know that I would say that Wladimir is “greater in defeat” like he puts it. You’re only as good as your last performance in boxing. It’s the same with any career. As a doctor, if you screw up in surgery, then it could hurt your career. The way that Wladimir looked against Fury and in his previous fight against Bryant Jennings, I think Wladimir has clearly slipped a few notches and isn’t a top guy any longer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlgpO_0a21w
Wladimir is still contender level fighter in my view, but I no longer see him a champion level fighter. When you lose to Fury the way that Wladimir did, it tells me that you’re no longer A-level. I don’t see Fury as an A-level guy. He’s just a B-level guy that beat another B-level guy. Heck, they were both INCREDIBLY AWFUL last Saturday night. It was just that Fury was a little less awful than Wladimir, so he squeaked out a narrow win.
“I was really frustrated directly after the fight but after some short nights I now know that I want to show that I am much better than my performance on Saturday,” Wladimir said. “I couldn’t show my full potential at any time. This is what I want to change in the rematch – and I will.”
Wladimir had 12 rounds to show his potential against the light hitting and constantly moving Fury, and he couldn’t do it. What makes you think that a rematch would be any different than the first fight? Fury will use the same head movement and will run around the ring in the same manner. If Wladimir can’t cut off the ring and throw shots like last Saturday, then he’ll lose in the same way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVfUoE9JXg0
I don’t see how anything will change. Wladimir was confused by the little bit of head movement that Bryant Jennings used against him, and he wasn’t even moving. Fury will be doing laps all night long until he feels he has nothing to fear from Wladimir. He’ll then come forward and try and steal rounds by throwing his tapping shots to outwork Wladimir. I see this same scenario taking place in the rematch.
The only way that Wladimir can beat Fury is if he just comes forward throwing right hands. Wladimir’s jabs will be useless due to Fury leaning backwards all night long. That’s why Wladimir will need to come forward throwing long right hands. But where he needs dramatic improvement is after he misses with his right hands, which will likely be happening 90 percent of the time due to his accuracy problems.
When Wladimir misses with his right, he needs to follow up immediately with punches on the inside the way that Wilder did in his last fight against Johann Duhaupas last September. When Wilder missed with his rights, he didn’t just clinch like Wladimir did against Fury. Wilder threw punches on the inside and then backed away to the outside to reset for another big right hand or left hook.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa-VWuTipo4
Wladimir needs to do something different when he misses a shot instead of just clinching 24/7 like he usually does. Wladimir also needs to throw massive right hands in each round. I tell you that if Wladimir throws 60 right hands per round, then Fury will be dust. Even if only 10 percent of those right hands land, Fury will be knocked cold. But Wladimir won’t be able to land his jab or left hook due to Fury leaning backwards all the time and using his long reach. But Fury won’t be able to stop the right hands because those will get through no matter how much leaning backwards he does.
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