By Scott Gilfoid: 39-year-old Wladimir Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) is convinced that he just had an off night in losing to Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision in their fight last November in Dusseldorf, Germany. Wladimir thinks he can correct the mistakes he made in the first fight and come back to defeat the 27-year-old Fury in their rematch in the first quarter of 2016.
Whether Wladimir can do that or not remains to be seen. Wladimir lost the fight by the scores of 166-111, 115-112 and 115-112. Fury really thinks he did a job on Wladimir despite the fact that he looked almost as bad. The thing is Fury is young and in his prime. It was sad to see how awful Fury looked because he should have been able to fight at a higher level than he did if he were any good.
Wladimir is still bummed out by the defeat because he feels he could have and should have done better against the loud-talking Fury. It was Wladimir’s first loss in 11 years since his defeat to Lamon Brewster. However, what was even more troubling about the loss was how Wladimir never was able to
“I had to experience the feeling of stepping out of the ring as a loser. That was very disappointing for me; I suffered day and night after the fight and I am still suffering,” Wladimir said to skysports.com. A lost fight does not mean I have lost the war. ‘Failure is not an option,’ I tell myself and my team repeatedly. But if you have suffered a failure, you shouldn’t lick your wounds for too long. Keep going!”
I think Wladimir is probably going to be in a state of deep depression if he loses to Fury a second time. As bad as Wladimir looked last November, it is likely that he will suffer a second defeat. Wladimir just does not look like he can commit himself to his punches any longer. It is not that he does not still have good punching power and hand speed, because he still has those things going for him.
Wladimir’s problem is he is so worried about missing and being countered that he doesn’t throw his shots. Good fighters commit to their punches even though they know that they might miss with their shots. If they think they have a decent chance of landing, they will throw them.
Wladimir does not do that. He wants to be certain that there is no chance of him missing one of his punches, and this causes him to wait too long for the perfect time where he will not miss. In the meantime, Wladimir does absolutely nothing by not throwing punches and just wastes time. Wladimir has been fighting like this for a long, long time, and I cannot see him changing that style for this fight.
“A defeat is painful, oh yes it is, but it is something you learn from and keep going. To become better,” Wladimir said.
Oh brother, I think Wladimir is going overboard with his self-help talk. Instead of babbling about how painful his defeat was, Wladimir needs to take a good look in the mirror and realize why he lost. The guy just does not like to let his hands go at this point in his career. If Wladimir could somehow get back to the fighter he was before the late Emanuel Steward trained him, I think he would wipe the deck with Fury.
The Wladimir that beat Ray Mercer in 2002 would make short work of Fury. You can believe it or not; Wladimir used to throw many punches and rarely held back then. He was not someone who clinched a lot, and he didn’t seem to mind it so much if he missed a punch. All those years with Steward turned Wladimir into an over-cautious fighter and now it’s led to him losing to a mediocre heavyweight that he would have absolutely destroyed 13 years ago. Don’t get me wrong; there are heavyweights that Wladimir needs to be cautious with, but the feather-fisted Fury definitely isn’t one of them.
Instead of Wladimir harping about his loss to Fury, I think he needs to recognize once and for all why he lost that fight. It only takes viewing one round to realize why Wladimir lost the fight. It also only takes a second to realize how Wladimir can whip Fury in the rematch. All Wladimir has to do to beat Fury in the rematch is for him to go back to the way he used to fight before Steward changed his fighting style. Like I said, the aggressive Wladimir that he used to be would slice through a light puncher like Fury with no problems. The Wladimir that lost to Ross Puritty earlier in his career would easily beat Fury in my view.
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