By Scott Gilfoid: Wladimir Klitschko thinks it’ll be a good thing if Tyson Fury defeats Deontay Wilder in their rematch in Las Vegas. Klitschko thinks it’ll “open doors” if Fury beats Wilder because it’ll lead to a UK fight between him and Anthony Joshua.
Wladimir lost to both Joshua and Fury in his last 2 fights of his career before calling it quits in 2017. He never fought Wilder, who helped him with sparring many years ago.
Wladimir wishes for Fury to beat Wilder
“I think, or I wish, that actually Fury, believe it or not, might make it. Maybe not, but I wish he’s going to,” said Klitschko to thenational.ae. “But it could possibly be a good mix when, all of a sudden, Fury is going to win and a lot of different doors are going to open and excitement and things like that. But as I said, Wilder is going to win by knockout or Fury could win on points.”
Despite losing to ‘The Gypsy King’ Fury (29-0-1, 20 KOs) five years ago when he was just a young, hungry upstart from the UK, the former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Klitschko harbors no ill will towards him Wladimir, 43, wants Fury to because Wilder because it sets up potentially a fight for the undisputed heavyweight championship against IBF/WBA/WBO champion Anthony Joshua.
In Wladimir’s view, it matters that boxing has a unified champion with all the belts. As fragmented as the heavyweight division is right now, even if Fury and Joshua fought each other, the winner still wouldn’t be viewed as the overall champion by fans. if Joshua beats Fury, he would still need to face Wilder, and he would need to face an in shape Andy Ruiz Jr.
Wladimir seems to be under the impression that if Wilder beats Fury, then it’ll be more difficult to make the fight for the undisputed heavyweight championship. Perhaps Wladimir isn’t aware of the past negotiations that took place between Wilder and Joshua in which the American was offered a flat fee for the fight.
Wladimir doesn’t realize that he’s viewing things in a narrow way by focusing on a fight that would interest people in ONE country only [UK], and not two. Wilder-Joshua is clearly a much bigger fight than Joshua-Fury.
Joshua vs. Fury could be very BORING fight
Wilder has the more appeal in terms of attracting American boxing fans to a fight involving Joshua than Fury. American fans like to see knockouts, and aggressive fighters. Wilder has the style that U.S fans like. Fury is more of a pitty-pat puncher, who moves a lot, and fights a lot like Wladimir used to. That might be one reason why Wladimir is leaning towards wanting him to win.
Additionally, with Joshua Joshua now emulating Wladimir’s old style of fighting, which involves a lot of holding and spoiling, a fight between him and Fury could be extremely boring for fans worldwide, not just in the U.S. If both Fury and Joshua are spoiling the entire fight, it’ll two negatives going against each other instead of having one positive fighting style in Wilder
It’s a fight that could have taken place years ago, but it wasn’t going to work with Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn playing the A-side card. Wilder and his team weren’t going to go for that, and they obviously won’t in the future either.
There’s probably zero difference between Wilder and Fury as far as it goes with making a fight with Joshua. They both want the fight, but obviously they’re not going to be led around by the nose and told what to do.
Joshua vs. Wilder = BIGGER than Joshua-Fury
If Wilder wins, then it’s TWO countries [U.S and UK] that would be interested in the undisputed heavyweight championship. If Fury beats Wilder, then it’s basically a domestic championship between two Brits with Tyson facing Joshua, both of which come from the UK.
Fury, 31, has only fought twice in America in going up against little known European fighters Tom Schwarz and Otto Wallin. Neither fight attracted interest from U.S fans, and Fury failed to increase his popularity in a substantial way.
In hindsight, it was a waste of time for Fury to face weak punchers than the U.S fans had never heard of. What Fury’s promoters at Top Rank attempted to do in matching him against lesser fighters was they tried to increase his popularity using the backdoor method. Instead of matching Fury against the best, they picked out two guys with unbeaten records, but little power and not much in the way of talent for him to get easy wins. Unfortunately, it didn’t help Fury’s popularity, and it almost backfired when he had to battle hard to beat Wallin.
Deontay on Fury bulking up to 270 lbs
“Anything Fury is saying and what he’s going to do, I really don’t care,” said Wilder about Fury’s claims of weighing 270 lbs. “I’m just waiting for that date to come around. I don’t care what he weighs in at. If that weight suits him, and he’s comfortable with it, then hey, come on with it. Whatever he says he wants to do, come on with it.
“This is what it’s all about,” said Deontay. “I want him [Fury] to be in his best shape, and comfortable with his weight. I want him to be physically and mentally ready for the best fight of his life, because he’s definitely ready for a great fight on February 22,” said Wilder.
Will Fury be able to carry added weight without tiring?
At this point it could be a horrible mistake on Fury’s part if he walks into the ring at 270+ lbs on the night against the lean Deontay, who probably will be no heavier than 215 lbs.
Fury weighed 256 lbs for his first fight with Wilder in 2018, and he was carrying around a lot of excess fat on his frame. In the later rounds, Fury clearly tired out from all the moving that he was doing. At that point, Wilder took over the fight, dropped him twice, and looked like the better man by far at the end.
There’s no difference between a fighter gaining a lot of muscle and putting on a lot of fat. When it comes to the cardiovascular system, it’s going to be under a huge burden of dealing with that extra weight whether it’s fat or muscle.
So if Fury comes in heavier at 270 than in the first fight, he’ll be no better off unless he bullrushes Wilder early to knock him out. Adding the weight could help Fury in the first 4 rounds, but after that, he’s likely to tire out, and start getting dropped repeatedly by Wilder.
Wilder wants no excuses from Fury afterwards
“I want no excuses,” said Wilder. “I don’t make excuses, and I don’t plan on making any. And I give my best when I’m in there, and I expect the same from him. I don’t want no excuses that he should have been a little bit smaller or whatever.
“At this point in time with us having a second fight, he should know where he needs to be as far as weight wise and everything else. If he blows himself up, then that’s him, but I’m looking forward to the best Tyson Fury possible come February 22,” said Wilder.
Where Wilder is coming from by saying that he doesn’t want excuses from Fury was all the stuff that he said after their first fight. Fury constantly has talked about how he’d been out of the ring for close to 3 years, and that he wasn’t in the best shape for the first fight. It sounded like Fury was making excuses, and couldn’t just admit that he blew it by fading and getting dropped twice in the championship rounds by Wilder.
It would be nice if Fury doesn’t come up with some kind of excuse if he fails to get the win. Wilder thinks that Fury is going to start moaning about how things would have been different if he was still with his old trainer Ben Davison. That would be weak on Fury’s part, because he’s been talking about how great it is being with his new trainer Sugar Hill Steward.