By Scott Gilfoid: After a lot of negotiations, the rematch between IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) and 40-year-old Wladimir Klitschko (64-4, 54 KOs) is now official for October 29 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK. The Fury-Klitschko fight will be shown on BoxNation in the UK. This fight will help clear up some of the curiosity over the previous fight, as there a many in the boxing world who feel that Wladimir would have won that fight if he had simply thrown punches.
It was the weirdest fight to watch, because Wladimir did little more than follow Fury around for 12 rounds with his right hand cocked but not being thrown. It looked like Wladimir was afraid to throw punches. I’m not sure if he’ll be unafraid in the rematch or not.
It would be bad news for Wladimir’s career if he loses again in the same manner. It would suggest to the boxing experts that the Ukrainian can no longer pull the trigger on his punches. That’s a sure sign of aging when you’ve got a fighter who can no longer let his hands go like they did years ago.
After looking at replay of the Fury-Klitschko fight earlier today, I’ve concluded that Wladimir probably won’t win the rematch. He just looks old and incapable of letting his shots go. Wladimir still has decent hand speed for a heavyweight, but his accuracy with his punches is completely gone. His timing is shots, and he doesn’t want to take chances by letting his hands go.
I think Wladimir realizes that he’s going to miss with his punches 90% of the time, and he doesn’t want to leave himself open to counters when he does miss. In other words, he doesn’t appear to have any faith in his own chin to take Wladimir’s slapping counter shots. That’s bad. If Wladimir doesn’t trust his chin against Fury, then what is he going to do when he gets inside the ring with the likes of Wilder, Joshua or Luis Ortiz? I don’t think he’ll beat those guys now. Wladimir looked terrible last year in struggling to beat Bryant Jennings.
There was nothing sensational about Fury’s win over Wladimir last November in Dusseldorf, Germany. Fury moved constantly for 12 rounds, threw frequent light flicking punches into the air to keep Wladimir from coming forward, and he did a lot of holding. There was nothing exciting about the fight. Fury won the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision. The judges scored the contest 115-112, 116-111 and 115-112.
Fury, 6’9”, isn’t that good of a heavyweight, and he likely would have been knocked out if he had fought some of the other heavyweights in the division like Deontay Wilder, Luis Ortiz, Anthony Joshua, and Kubrat Pulev. However, Fury didn’t have to worry about getting knocked out by Wladimir, as he wasn’t throwing any punches. I mean, the fight was awful to look at. For me, it was the most boring fight I’ve seen at the heavyweight level since the Lennox Lewis vs. Henry Akinwande fight. I didn’t see that fight until years later, as it was before my time, but it was a terrible fight with nothing but clinching. Wladimir did a lot of clinching against Fury, and there was just no action to speak of.
I don’t think that the boxing world is really all that interested in the Fury-Klitschko II rematch after how poor fighters looked the last time. The fans want to see these fighters move on. I know there’s a lot of interest in a Fury vs. Joshua or Fury vs. Deontay match-up. There’s no real interest in a second fight between Fury and Klitschko, as far as I can tell.
I just hope this is the last time Fury and Klitschko fight each other, because it would be terrible to see these two heavyweights locked into fighting each other once a year for the next three or four years. They need to move on already. That’s why I hate when there are rematch clauses in the contract for fights. We need a boxing commission to eliminate rematch clauses. You don’t see rematches for the Super Bowl in the NFL or in the NBA finals. In those sports, when you lose to a team, it’s over. You don’t get a second chance to shove another Super Bowl or NBA finals between the same teams down the throats of the fans. The loser moves on, licks their wounds, and tries to rebuild. The winner has to start all over in the next year. I think rematches are sad, because it locks out other fighters from getting a shot at the titles until the rematches play themselves out,
“I’m delighted that we can finally get the fight back on and in Manchester on October 29th,” said Fury’s trainer Peter Fury. After hard discussions we can now focus on giving the fans what they deserve; another barnburner of a fight. Team Fury will ensure Tyson is in the shape of his life to successfully retain his World Titles.”
I have a feeling this is going to be a real stinker of a fight. It’s just bad news that Fury and Klitschko are fighting each other again after how dreadful their last fight was. If this was a movie, it would be a rotten film that viewers wouldn’t want to see a second time. The fact there there’s now a rematch, I think it’s going to be another boring fight for the boxing world to view.