After pulling off the upset win in Germany last November, heavyweight champion Tyson Fury is set to rematch Wladimir Klitschko, this time in Manchester, United Kingdom.
Tyson Fury’s first defense of his WBO and WBA heavyweight titles will be against the man he took it from in November 2015. In news confirmed by Peter Fury, Tyson’s uncle and trainer, Tyson will rematch Wladimir Klitschko on July 9th in Manchester, England.
9th July @Tyson_Fury vs Klitschko” is coming to Manchester uk. Official announcement coming 12 noon.
— peter fury. (@peterfury) April 8, 2016
More details are due to be announced on Saturday, including the venue.
Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) defeated Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) by unanimous decision (116-111, 115-112, 115-112) at the ESPRIT Arena in Dusseldorf to end Wladimir’s reign as the world’s #1 heavyweight. It was Klitschko’s first loss since a stunning TKO defeat to Lamon Brewster back in 2004. The fight itself was … bad. They combined to land 138 punches (per CompuBox) over the course of 36 minutes. That averages out to less than 4 punches landed per minute, and Wladimir only was credited with 52 out of 231 thrown. After the scorecard was read, Fury serenaded his traveling fans with a stirring rendition of Aerosmith’s “Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing.
The big win netted Fury the WBO, IBF, and WBA belts (the WBC title is held by Deontay Wilder), but he was stripped of the IBF belt when he opted not to make a mandatory title defense against Vyacheslav Glazkov. Klitschko exercised his rematch clause, and after a lengthy negotiating period, it looks like terms have finally been agreed upon for these two men to clash once more.
In case the July 9th date sounds familiar, it is the same day as UFC 200, but the fight will almost certainly happen well before the UFC PPV broadcast begins. It’ll be a combat sports day filled with rematches, although I think Edgar vs. Aldo I and Diaz vs. McGregor I were slightly more exciting than Klitschko vs. Fury I.
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