Wladimir Klitschko: I can’t wait to get my belts back!

By Boxing News - 05/31/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: Wladimir Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) say he feels younger now that he’s no longer a world champion, and he’s looking forward to challenging IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) in their rematch on July 9 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK.

Wladimir, 40, plans on knocking Fury out and recapturing those belts that are now in the slightly pudgy looking British fighters’ possession. Wladimir feels he has less pressure on him now that he’s no longer defending his titles. He likes being on the other side of the fence as the challenger for a change after holding down world titles for nine straight years until his loss to Fury last November.

That was a contest in which Wladimir failed to do enough on offense to get the victory. It looked to me like Wladimir was afraid to miss with one of his power shots and get countered. Part of boxing is for fighters to throw shots and deal with the return fire. Wladimir wasn’t willing to take any chances by throwing punches, so it’s not surprising that he was beaten.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8UpvVmwwak

“It will be a boxing match that will be so enjoyable for the fans and for me as well. I will knock Tyson Fury out,” said Wladimir to skysports.com. “That attitude changed after I loss. I’m happier and I have a chance to make it straight and bounce back. I feel free. I do feel less pressure and just reloaded.”

It’s nice that Wladimir isn’t feeling as much now that Fury has relieved him of the burden of being a world champion. That doesn’t mean that Wladimir won’t need to produce and take risks on July 9.

The 6’6” Wladimir needs to change his mindset from being so defensive and focus on being an aggressor in his fights. That means he’s going to need to stop being so timid. If Wladimir is to have any chance of beating Fury, he must fight like used to earlier in his career before he hooked up with his late trainer Emanuel Steward.

Wladimir used to attack his opponents and punish them. Wladimir was even good at fighting on the inside. It’s too bad he changed his fighting style because he would have likely whipped Fury last November if he had been using the fighting style he came into the pro ranks with back in 1996.

Wladimir is in the role of spoiler in his fight against Fury. If Wladimir can beat Fury, then he’ll likely mess up his big money fights against Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder at least for a little while. There’s no way that Fury will face Joshua or Deontay coming off a loss to Wladimir. I mean, Fury can do anything he wants and still take those fights next, but I think it would be stupid.

Fury will have to do what all fighters do when they’ve been beaten soundly and that’s to rebuild for three to ten fights. If Fury chooses to face Joshua or Wilder off the back of a loss to Wladimir, then I don’t see the fights being huge.

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