By Scott Gilfoid: Former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) and IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) met for their Face to Face Fury/Klitschko on BoxNation to promote their rematch next month on July 9 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester. UK.
Wladimir, 40, hardly got a word in edge wise, as Fury frequently interrupted him when he was trying to speak, and ended up dominating the entire show. The moderator did a poor job of keeping Fury stifled so that Wladimir could speak when he was given a turn. The gist of the face off was Fury trying to convince Wladimir and the moderator that he doesn’t care if he loses the fight because he’s already getting paid.
Fury said he’ll retire if he loses. My impression was that Fury was utterly disingenuous most of the time, and spouting stuff that sounded more like psycho-babble that meaningful stuff that he really believed. Contrary what Fury was saying about how he doesn’t care if he loses, I think he DOES care very much.
If Fury didn’t care, he wouldn’t have kept pouncing on Wladimir each time he tried to explain why he lost the previous fight. You could tell the way that Fury attacking Wladimir that he really does care about the rematch. It was interesting though to see Fury trying to give the impression that he doesn’t care when in fact he obviously does. To me, it sounds like Fury is just setting up a cop out excuse for afterwards in case he loses. If he gets whipped by Wladimir on July 9, he can say he didn’t really care anyway.
“Believe it or not, I do enjoy where I’m at right now as a challenger,” said Wladimir to BoxNation. “I’m relieved, relaxed and alert. I still have the youth and the strength to make it, and that’s why I’m so happy I have the rematch. The difference is I’m just going to let my hands go, which I didn’t do in the first fight and then you will see the difference.”
Fury: “He says he’s going to do it, so I believe he is. I believe he will let his hands go. My question is what happened in the first fight. Why didn’t you let your hands go?”
Wladimir: “I chose to lose. Failure is not an option until it is an option.”
Fury: “Failure is not an option? You failed already, didn’t you? Let’s just be normal. Forget all the acting. What happened? Obviously, you couldn’t land your punches. Don’t try and make this something that it’s not. It’s just a boxing match, Wlad. Obviously, you’re coming to win and I’m coming to win.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iptUlkBDPHM
Wladimir: “I will explain it to you at the press conference after our rematch. I’ll explain to you the difference and you’ll feel the difference.”
Fury: “I won’t feel any different and I don’t feel any different now. It doesn’t do anything to me, win, lose or draw.”
Wladimir: “I didn’t feel he was better than me. It was not a boxing match. It was just walking around, looking at each other. That’s it. The fight was not there.”
Fury: “So what you’re saying is you didn’t try to win. So you let all your fans down…and you just conned them for money?”
Wladimir: “I was just looking at you and not letting my hands go.”
There’s no doubt in my mind that Wladimir will be throwing more punches in the rematch than he did in their previous fight last November. He’s got to. If Wladimir doesn’t let his hands go in the rematch, then he’s going to wind up getting clowned by Fury a second time. I think Wladimir will wind up throwing a lot of punches in the rematch because he’s had all this time to study what he did wrong the first time.
Wladimir did throw more punches in the 12th round of their previous fight, but he was still not attacking in the way that he needed to in order for him to have a chance of winning. That’s where he messed up because he should have been going after Fury with abandon. What we saw instead was Wladimir throwing a handful of right hands and spending the rest of the time holding Fury. It was pretty pathetic to watch.
Fury: “Does it matter who wins and loses? Why does it matter? I’ll still get paid, don’t I? These belts haven’t seen the daylight since I won them. That’s just the person I am. Clearly, they mean something to Wlad, because he’s here trying to win them back, and he wants to try and win them again. It really doesn’t matter to me because I already beat him. My jobs already done. I’ve already done the impossible. So if he knocks me out in 10 seconds, I’m happy. So what? I’ve been paid a lot of money. I’ve been heavyweight champion of the world. Just because I lose one doesn’t mean I’m not going to be involved in a big fight in the future. I will be.”
Wladimir: “I’ve been holding these titles for so long. It’s not about the titles. I have to make my mistakes right.”
Fury: “It’s not embarrassing to be beaten by someone that is better than you on the night. Everybody has bad nights, don’t they? Either way, I don’t care. I can retire as a former heavyweight champion and beat the man nobody could beat. I hope you beat me and everybody else, so it makes my win even better, doesn’t it? I think Wladimir gets more support here than I do. I’m popular because I talk smack all the time. I’m popular because I make myself popular. I’m popular because I’m the person everybody loves to hate. Without me, boxing becomes boring again; back to the old days of him. I put on a show. This is show business for me. Everybody comes to show up to see my antics. I think it’s my job to entertain everybody and put the best show I can.”