By Yannis Mihanos: For the last 10 years or so we have witnessed the absolute dominance in the heavyweight division by the Klitschko brothers. Their predictability in fighting has always been complimented by their natural physical advantage, an advantage so big that for all these years no one has found the way to answer. But last Saturday night in Dusseldorf, Germany at the ESPRIT stadium, Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) changed all that.
Because I have heard many times claims of winning by various opponents of Wladimir Klitschko (64-4,-53 KOs), I admit that while watching Fury’s interviews found him quite amusing. I wasn’t at all convinced that he can succeed where others have failed. I didn’t value him at all as threat.
I was wrong! Not only he did the talking but did the fighting too. His claims that he would expose Wladimir’s weakness came true.
The plan was to be as unpredictable as he can be and he executed it perfectly.
Some sworn fans of Klitschko will say that Wladimir disappointed them. But to my eyes he didn’t, Klitschko fought his usual game, reserved and ready to fire with his Dr. steel-hammer punch.
This style has become his trademark for all these years, his formula of success and yes, like Fury intelligently mentioned on an interview a very predictable one.
I think Wladimir would have loved to switch it off for something else during the fight but it was too difficult to adapt. In fact his trainer saw it coming, warning Wladimir that Fury will dance around him all the match winning on points.
The problem with this fight was that the Wladimir’s formula was not compatible against someone so incompatible like Fury.
Add to this, Fury’s natural size and height and you have the weapon against Klitschko’s 10 year dominance.
Tyson with his clever approach, hands down, shooting unpredictable brought Wladimir to extreme dysfunction and discomfort and eventually to defeat.
I can’t say that what I watched was a boxing clinic but it was a showcase of a higher IQ for this fight.
And while Wladimir has always been described as a high intellectual person, in this game of chess he came up very, very short.
So now that we have a new king in the heavyweight division, what happens next?
There is always the rematch clause in the contract that now Wladimir has no choice but to take it even if it means losing again.
How soon? First, Wladimir must recover from his facial injuries and then must go back to the gym and reprogram himself, and update a bit his style and hope for the best.
That’s not an easy task. It takes a lot of time to build one, to replace it or update it, and means lots of hard work.
A rematch will definitely produce higher numbers on PPV’s and stadium ticket sales. The interest will definitely double.
But for the moment let’s shut down all these hypotheses and enjoy something new, and let’s congratulate the new king Tyson Fury.
So suddenly the excitement in this division is back. It was about time.
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