By Scott Gilfoid: IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury announced earlier on Friday that he won’t be able to defend his titles against Wladimir Klitschko in their scheduled fight on July 9th due to an ankle injury that he suffered. Fury says he’ll need another six to seven weeks for the injury. However, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN, sources say that Fury was not ready to take the fight with Wladimir due to his conditioning.
Fury had gained a great deal of weight before starting training camp for the Klitschko rematch. Taking that weight off has been job one for the 6’9” Fury. It’s unclear how far along he’s gotten at this point in trimming off the lard.
If Fury is still out of shape and overweight, he would have only three weeks to take the rest of the weight off.
For those who have tried trimming off a great deal of fat from their bodies, it’s difficult to take off much fat in just three weeks.
“Although Fury said he is injured, sources involved in the fight have told ESPN that he simply was not prepared to fight Klitschko again in just a few weeks,” said Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. ”Fury, who has partied hard, has been seen drinking in public and appeared out of shape since winning the title, even grabbing his gut at a recent press event promoting the fight.”
Oh my, did Fury need more time to take off the flab, is that what it is? Perhaps it’s just a coincidence that the injury happened with Fury still needing to take off a lot of weight in just three weeks. I mean, you can say the injury is a good thing. Injuries are never a good thing obviously, but in the case of Fury, I think it might be this time.
With another six to seven weeks with the Fury-Klitschko being postponed, it will give Fury plenty of time to take off whatever weight he’s got left to burn off before he steps foot inside the ring with Klitschko. As long as Fury is able to stand and training during that time frame, he can take the weight off quite nicely, I imagine.
The worst thing that could happen to Fury is if he had come into the Klitschko rematch a good 20 to 40 pounds overweight. Fury, 6’9”, used his ring movement to his advantage in beating Klitschko by a narrow 12 round unanimous decision last November in Dusseldorf, Germany. If you take away Fury’s mobility due to him being still fat and out of shape, it would be the equivalent of a bird with it’s wings clipped and unable to fly.
Fury would literally be at the mercy of the stronger, faster and more powerful Wladimir. I’m just saying. There would be no way on earth that a stationary Fury beats Wladimir in the rematch. If you look at the recent training video of Wladimir, he’s looking very powerful and he’s throwing more right hands. Wladimir is not carrying much of any fat all and looks to be in top shape. He had a tall sparring partner that moved around the ring constantly in mimicking Fury’s fighting style, and Wladimir effortlessly cut off the ring and blasted him with long right hands to the head.
The sparring partner changed directions on a dime repeatedly just like Fury, and Wladimir was still able to immediately catch up to him and nail him with shots. I would say the sparring partner had much better movement than Fury, and yet Wladimir was able to track him down quickly each time and blast him with right hands. It was like watching a younger version of Wladimir back when he was more aggressive. We didn’t see any clinching from Wladimir. It was straight seek and destroy from the Ukrainian fighter.
I had my doubts whether Wladimir would beat Fury in the rematch until I saw that video. After watching that video, I cannot see Fury winning a second fight against Wladimir no matter what conditioning he comes in for the fight. Obviously, it would be better for Fury not to be flabby and laboring when he gets inside the ring with Wladimir in the rematch, but I don’t think it really matters. Wladimir looks sensational now, and is using his old fighting style from the 90s before the late Emanuel Steward changed it to a more defensive and clinching style.
“Of course, I am currently totally disappointed about the cancellation,” Klitschko said via ESPN.com. “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.”