By Ian S Palmer
Heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko of Ukraine will be defending his IBF, WBO, IBO, and WBA world titles this Saturday, November 28th in Dusseldorf, Germany against England’s unbeaten Tyson Fury. The 12-round bout can be seen on Sky Box Office in the UK, while fans in Canada and America can catch the action live on HBO. This fight tells the current state of the heavyweight division as Fury has earned a title shot by beating just one or two true heavyweight contenders during his career.
For once, the 39-year-old champion won’t be the bigger man in the ring since he’s 6-feet-6-inches tall and the 27-year-old Fury has a three-inch advantage at 6-foot-9. The challenger also has the reach advantage with a wingspan of 85 inches compared to Klitschko’s 81 inches. As far as their records go, Klitschko is an impressive 64-3 with 53 Kos while Fury is perfect at 24-0 with 18 Kos. Klitschko of Kiev has boxed 346 rounds since turning pro in 1996 while Fury of Manchester has 134 rounds under his belt since 2008. Both men have better-than-average power as Klitschko currently has a knockout ratio of 79 per cent and Fury’s is 75 per cent.
Klitschko won his first title in 2000 by beating Chris Byrd of America via a unanimous decision. However, he wasn’t a dominant heavyweight back then as he was stopped by Ross Purity back in 1998 while Corrie Sanders knocked him out in 2003 and Lamont Brewster did the same in 2004. He definitely had a weaker chin back then, but he hasn’t been beaten since Brewster stopped him 11 years ago. Since then, Klitschko has taken on all comers and stopped most of them. His best wins have been over Ray Mercer, Calvin Brock, Brewster, Tony Thompson, Hasim Rahman, Ruslan Chagaev, David Haye and Bryant Jennings.
Klitschko may seem to be robotic to many fans, but he has a lot of mobility in the ring to go along with a heavy jab and a tremendous crushing straight right hand. His chin hasn’t betrayed him over the past decade, but he’s now close to 40 years old, smaller, and 12 years older than Fury. The challenger has beaten everyone he’s faced s far, but the list isn’t really that impressive as it includes Christian Hammer, Joey Abell, Vinny Maddalone, Kevin Johnson, Steve Cunningham, Nicolai Firtha and Dereck Chisora twice. None of these is an elite heavyweight and Fury struggled against several of them while five of Klitschko’s last half dozen opponents were undefeated.
Fury possesses some boxing skills to go along with a questionable chin. Many fans would love to see the champion stop him since Fury is quite an unlikeable character most of the time, much like Adrien Broner. However, he’s undefeated and has size and youth on his side. Anything can happen when heavyweights with this type of power meet each other. This means we could see several knockdowns along the way or they’ll both be wary of each other’s power and will fight cautiously without taking many chances.
Prediction
Klitschko has much better boxing skills and needs to use them by establishing his battering-ram jab in the first round. As soon as Fury gets within range he needs to nail him to discourage the challenger from trying to get inside and instigating a brawl. If Klitschko was in his prime he wouldn’t have any problem with somebody like Fury. However, if he gets nailed on the chin by the challenger at this stage of his career he could be in trouble. That’s Fury’s only hope though, to land a knockout shot. Look for Klitschko to use his experience, motivation, and movement to take a decision or stoppage win for his 19th successful defence in a row.
