By Scott Gilfoid: Wladimir Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) was disappointed on Friday with the news of IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) pulling out of their July 9 fight due to an ankle injury. The two fighters were supposed to be fighting each other at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK.
The fight will likely be postponed until October under the best of circumstances. Wladimir, 40, says that he’ll still be beating Fury. It just means he’ll have to wait a little bit longer before he picks up the belts from the 27-year-old British fighter.
Fury said he hurt his ankle running. He had been working hard to take off the excess weight that he had packed on after his earlier victory over Klitschko last November. On his social medial site, Fury posted a picture of his bruised angle as proof that he had a legitimate injury. However, there are many fans who see it as convenient that Fury would suffer a training injury while still being heavy and only having three weeks to go before the fight. The injury gives Fury more time to take the weight off if he’s able to walk around.
Fury is injured and rematch postponed. This just means I'll get my belt a few weeks later." #NowMoreThanEver
— Klitschko (@Klitschko) June 24, 2016
“Of course, I am currently totally disappointed about the cancellation. As well as for my fans, I´m very sorry, they were all very excited for this rematch. But one thing is also clear: This just means I’ll get my belt a few weeks later,” said Wladimir.
Hopefully, Fury doesn’t suffer another ankle injury when he resumes his training. He needs to be running on a treadmill rather on the street because there are too many things to trip over when running on pavement.
Fury should be staying in the gym for all of his cardio work. Fury says the fight will still be taking place with Klitschko, as he doesn’t intend on vacating his titles. He still wants to fight him and it will still take place in Manchester.
For Wladimir, it’s not a great deal because it means he’ll likely only get a chance to fight once in 2016 instead of twice. Fury’s injury will cost Wladimir a fight, and that’s obviously not a good thing.
Fury is really up against it in this fight because Wladimir is looking really good in training camp. It doesn’t how much weight Fury takes off for this fight, he’s still going to have major problems because Wladimir is going to be forcing him to fight a lot more than he did the last time they fought. Fury will need to be able to take a lot more head shots than he did the first time around.
Fury thinks he’ll beat Wladimir just like last time, but I think the only way he does that if he comes up with another plan. The one they had last time probably won’t do the job this time around. Fury isn’t going to do much if all he’s going to be doing is circling the ring endlessly and scratching the air with his feints. He’s going to need to actually fight this time.
I sure hope this isn’t the beginning of a rash of injuries for Fury. The last thing Wladimir needs is for Fury to get injured over and over again. The sanctioning bodies need to be ready to strip Fury if his injury problems become chronic. They can’t afford to have an injury prone fighter hold their titles hostage and not defending them. Right now, Fury is like a goose sitting on the titles without defending them. I’m sure the titles make nice decorations around his house. It’s not good for the fight fans and for the contenders like Wladimir to have an overweight champion sitting on the belts with him unable to fight due to his aches and pains. The sanctioning bodies need to give Fury a time limit for his injury so that this doesn’t string out until 2017. Sprained ankle injuries shouldn’t take forever to heal.
When these guys do get around to facing each other again, it’s going to be interesting to see what the battle tactics are. Heck, the last time they fought each other, it was the boring fight I’ve ever seen in my life. It was like watching paint dry for 12 rounds.