By Allan Fox: After months of negotiations, IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and his team got their way in having former undisputed champion Wladimir Klitschko agree to fight Fury on July 9 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Fury will have hometown advantage against Wladimir, and he plans on using that advantage to defeat him for the second time. The 6’9” Fury already beaten Wladimir last year in winning a close 12 round decision in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Wladimir was unable take advantage of fighting in front of a large pro-Wladimir crowd of mostly German fans in Dusseldorf. Now it’s going to be Fury’s turn to fight in front of a large friendly crowd. Unlike Wladimir, Fury plans on using the crowd to his benefit by fighting hard and taking chances by throwing punches, something Wladimir failed to do last time due to him being too nervous/confused to let his hands go.
“It wasn’t very important for the fight to be in Manchester, but it was very important that I wasn’t going back to Germany,” Fury said to ESPN.com and Associated Press. “I wouldn’t go back. End of [discussion]. I wouldn’t get a decision. It’s in England. Wherever it was [in England], I wasn’t bothered.”
Fury didn’t think Wladimir would ever agree to a rematch after the way things went so badly for him last November in his loss. However, there was no way that Wladimir would be able to walk away from a close loss like the one he suffered against Fury because the fight didn’t end by a knockout like Wladimir’s defeats to Ross Puritty and the late Corrie Sanders. Both of those guys were able to KO Wladimir, and he never bothered to ever attempt to fight them again. Instead of Wladimir fighting them, his big brother Vitali Klitschko fought them both and stopped them after giving them bad beatings.
Wladimir obviously feels that he can improve enough to beat Fury in the rematch. It’ll be interesting to see he can do that. If Wladimir fails to get the win for a second time, then he probably needs to think about hanging up his gloves because he’s getting up there in age and he’s not going to get a better chance than this to get a win.
If Wladimir beats Fury, he can then either retire with the belts or move on and try to recapture the IBF title that he lost to Fury. Wladimir would need to face the new IBF champion Anthony Joshua if he can get a fight against him. It’s hard to say what Wladimir will do if he can beat Fury, because he looked so bad the last time they fought.
Right now you would have to assume that Wladimir will lose a second time to Fury because of his reluctance to throw punches and fight aggressively. Wladimir’s clinching tactics are too well ingrained at him after years of using these tactics against shorter fighters. That style doesn’t work against taller fighters like Fury. You have to throw punches to beat a fighter like Fury, and you need to be aggressive. That’s something that Wladimir hasn’t been since the 90s. He stopped being aggressive after his loss to Puritty.
“The only man that could beat Klitschko is me,” said Fury. “What I’ve got can’t be taught. You’ve either got it or you haven’t. How you beat robots is to do unorthodox things.”
Wladimir can act as a spoiler in this fight if he can beat Fury, because he would then stop Fury from getting a much bigger payday against Anthony Joshua later this year. That’s a fight that Fury will most surely be taking if he can get past Wladimir on July 9. Fury wants the Joshua fight because it’s one that could potentially sellout Wembley Stadium in London.
Fury would be getting Carl Froch type money if he can beat Wladimir and face Joshua. If that fight is close, then there could be a rematch between those two. Fury has talked of wanting to beat Wladimir, Joshua and then move on to face WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder so that he can grab the last remaining title. But if Fury beats Joshua, you can imagine that Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn will be trying his hardest to setup a rematch between those two fighters.
“Boxing fans worldwide will watch this international mega-event, and I’m looking forward to coming out victorious against Tyson Fury and regaining my heavyweight titles,” said Klitschko.
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