By Scott Gilfoid: Former world champion Wladimir Klitschko sent out a tweet earlier today letting his boxing fans know that he still intends on facing Tyson Fury in a rematch.
The negotiations are still taking place for the fight. Wladimir, who will be turning 40-years-old later this month on March 25, wants to avenge his loss to Fury from last November. Wladimir threw almost no punches in the fight in losing a close 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 115-112, 116-111, and 115-112.
I see Wladimir beating Fury in the rematch without too many problems. Wladimir still has better offensive skills than Fury, and he has more room to improve on his performance from last time. We saw Fury maxed out completely with his offense last November against Wladimir. That was as good as it gets with the weak-punching Fury. He cannot improve in the rematch because his slapping punches is basically his entire game. That’s why it was so odd that Wladimir didn’t just come straight at Fury last time, take whatever slaps he had to in order to blast him out with right hands. I think Wladimir has become so spoiled with the way he hasn’t had to be hit. When he finally faced someone that had the reach to touch him, he wasn’t willing to engage.
There are some boxing fans who talk about the Klitschko-Fury fight as if Fury dominated the fight. The reality is Fury barely won and looked almost as bad as Wladimir. The judges had little to pick from because both guys stunk out the joint so badly last November in their fight in Dusseldorf, Germany.
There’s talk that the Klitschko vs. Fury 2 rematch could take place in Manchester, UK in a 20,000 seat arena. It’ll be surprising if Wladimir will agree to that harebrained idea, because he can sellout 50,000 seat stadiums in Germany without any problems. The only way a fight between Wladimir and Fury would make sense in fighting in front of 20,000 fans in Manchester is if they jack up the prices to make up for the 30,000 fans that they won’t be getting by not fighting in Germany.
Would UK fans be willing to pay for expensive tickets for Fury vs. Klitschko. My guess is a big no. I don’t think Fury has the popularity yet in the UK to have one of his fights sellout if the prices are jacked up to an all-time high. The last thing the boxing public needs is to see expensive tickets.
Rematch vs @Tyson_Fury still in the making. I will keep you posted. Meanwhile staying in shape. #IamTheMovingForce pic.twitter.com/BFK0wASIJm
— Klitschko (@Klitschko) March 8, 2016
Even if Wladimir beats Fury in the rematch, I think there’s nowhere to go for the aging Ukrainian heavyweight. Unless Wladimir is interested in milking the belts, I don’t see him being able to beat any of the good heavyweights at this point in his career. Wladimir doesn’t seem capable of pulling the trigger on his punches at this point in his career. About the only thing I see Wladimir able to do is throw jabs. He’s not going to be able to best the good heavyweights by just jabbing.
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