Wladimir won’t fight Fury again – Joshua vs. Klitschko update

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: Tyson Fury can forget about ever getting a rematch with Wladimir Klitschko because it’s never going to happen, according to the big Ukrainian’s manager Bernd Boente. He says Wladimir (64-4, 53 KOs) lost 1 year of his career trying to get a rematch with Fury, and they don’t want to put any more time into facing him again.

If Wladimir was still young, it would be worth it, but he’s 41 now, and it would be a wise move. Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) pulled out of his rematch with Wladimir on 2 occasions. The result was Wladimir losing a year of his career waiting on Fury. Wladimir is now scheduled to fight IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (18-0, 18 KOs) for the vacant WBA title on April 29 at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Boente sees Joshua being an upgrade to the 6’9” Fury.

“Nobody of us ever wants to deal with this group of people again, especially including myself,” Boente said to skysports.com. “It was a lost year and don’t forget Wladimir is not 18 years old and starting as a pro. Nobody wants that anymore.”

It looks like Fury blew it as far as Wladimir is concerned. I don’t think it really matters if Fury ever faces Klitschko again. Fury is going to get a big cash out fight against Joshua unless he doesn’t something crazy like fighting an actual good contender before he takes the Joshua fight. If Fury fights anyone halfway decent before taking the Joshua fight, I see him losing. I don’t think Fury was ever a solid heavyweight. The only reason Fury beat Klitschko was the big Ukrainian beat himself by not throwing punches and fighting like he was scared for the entire 12 round fight in 2015. If Wladimir had shown any kind of courage in that fight, Fury would have been in trouble in view. I think he would have been on his back counting stars.

Boente is probably right in his decision not to fight Fury again. It’s a bad match-up for Wladimir because of Fury’s size, reach, mobility and defensive ability. There are guys that would likely tear Fury apart in the heavyweight division. Heck, even some of the cruiserweights would probably beat him, but Wladimir isn’t decisive enough with his decision making in terms of throwing shots. You have to commit to throwing fast power shots and not second guess yourself while throwing the shots.

We saw Wladimir not pulling the trigger on his shots against Fury in their fight in November 2015. When Wladimir did throw shots, he wasn’t committing to them fully by throwing with maximum speed and power. Wladimir was throwing at a much slower speed with his punches, as if he wasn’t sure if would land or not. That was dumb. The fact that Wladimir couldn’t make any adjustments to his fighting style is even more disappointing.

Klitschko approaches his fights in a scientific manner, and yet he didn’t possess the ability to dissect what he was doing wrong and make the needed changes to his game. He was slow in reacting, and HE WAS NOT following the instructions from his trainer Jonathon Banks and brother Vitali Klitschko. It was so obvious what Wladimir had to do. He wasn’t willing to do it. If Wladimir is only capable of fighting in a defensive manner at this point in his career, then it’s not a good idea for him to fight Fury ever again. To beat Fury, you have to be able to think on your feet, and fight with conviction.

“He literally threw two, three punches per round and had he thrown as many punches as in the last round, he probably would have won the fight,” said Boente.

I don’t think Wladimir would have won the fight against Fury even if he fought like he did in the 12th, because he looked dreadful in the last round. Wladimir looked scared. If he had just realized that even if he missed a shot, he could have followed up on the inside with a flurry of punches to knock Fury out. Fury is not a good inside fighter, and he has slow hands. If you look at video of Wladimir early in his career, he knocked out a number of fighters throwing flurries in close.

Wladimir was able to put his hands together in throwing sustained combinations from close range. Why didn’t do that against Fury is anyone’s guess. You can argue that Wladimir has forgotten more about boxing than most fighters will ever know. Wladimir appeared afraid to throw long distance shots because he might miss. But even if he had missed, he could have thrown flurries from close range.

Wladimir is using former heavyweight world title challenger Gerald Washington as one of his sparring partners to get him ready for the 6’6” Joshua. Washington is 6’7”, 250 lbs., and he recently was knocked out by WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder in the 5th round in their fight on February 25 in Birmingham, Alabama. Washington gave a good account of himself in losing to Deontay. Washington showed off a very good jab before Wilder took him out with a series of big powers shots. To be honest, I think Washington’s jab is much better than Joshua’s.

I don’t think you can teach a fighter to throw a jab like Washington’s. He’s just blessed with the ability to throw great jabs. It’s like a power shot. If Wladimir can get comfortable with dealing with Washington’s jab and his fast hands, he should have no problems with Joshua, because he’s slower than Washington, and like I said, he doesn’t have the same jab.

Joshua is using 6’7” former world title challenger Mariusz Wach as a sparring partner to get ready for Klitschko. Wach challenged for a world title against Wladimir five years ago on November 10, 2012. Wach lost a 12 round unanimous decision. Wach is now 37, and won 6 out of his last 7 fights since then. Wach was knocked out in the 12th round by Alexander Povetkin on November 4, 2015. In Wach’s last fight, he defeated Erkan Teper by a 12 round unanimous decision. This is the same Teper that knocked out David Price in the 2nd round a couple of years ago. Wach has never really beaten anyone good other than Teper, who isn’t that great of a fighter. Joshua isn’t going to get much out of sparring with Wach because he’s not athletic like Wladimir, and he’s not capable of moving around the ring. At least with Gerald Washington, Wladimir has someone that has fast hands and a great jab. I mean, yeah, Washington isn’t fast on his feet, but neither is Joshua. They’re both about the same in terms of mobility. Wach can punch a little with his right hand, but he’s very, very slow. He’s nothing like Klitschko. It’s not news that Wach doesn’t have Wladimir’s boxing skills.

I think Wladimir has the better sparring partner of the two by far. Wach is mainly good just to get Joshua prepared to deal with Wladimir’s height and reach. Other than that, Wach is not going to be any help for Joshua. I hate to say it, but Joshua is wasting his time with Wach. If I was Joshua, I wouldn’t spend too much time sparring with Wach. I’d focus on sparring more athletic guys that have a good jab, even if they’re shorter than Wladimir. Joshua is going to have to deal with Wladimir’s mobility and his jab in this fight on April 29 more than anything. I don’t see Wladimir standing still and just trading with the younger, stronger Joshua. Someone like Deontay would be able to stand in the pocket and go to war with Joshua, but not Klitschko. He doesn’t have the chin to fight like that in my opinion.