Though nobody will ever say the first, and as it will now no doubt be, the only, meeting between heavyweights Tyson Fury and Wladimir Klitschko produced a great fight, there was a potentially great rematch of a fight awaiting us, and maybe a memorable trilogy of a rivalry. But now, due to Fury’s plethora of out of the ring problems, this particular rivalry has ended in a frustratingly unresolved manner.
Who knows what would have happened had Fury and Klitschko met in a rematch of last November’s bout, won on points by Fury.
Would Klitschko – a man who said himself he was “obsessed” with getting revenge over the man who beat him and taunted him both in the ring and out of it – have scored a crushing KO win in the return? Or would a fully fit and motivated Fury (something we seem unlikely to ever see again) have proven his win was no fluke and won again?
We will never know, but as frustrating as this is for us fans, imagine how agonising it is for Klitschko, by far the most meticulous prize fighter of his generation. Wladimir will box on – possibly against IBF champ Anthony Joshua next – but even if the 40-year-old goes on to defeat AJ, and then reigning WBC king Deontay Wilder after that, and then top contenders like Joseph Parker and maybe even Hughie Fury, Dr. Klitschko will still have that monkey on his back – one put there by the most depressing and frustrating loss of his entire career.
How badly the November 2015 loss will hurt Klitschko’s legacy time alone will tell, but Wladimir will know himself how the fight will be brought up by his critics whenever his overall merit as a great fighter is discussed. Klitscko, 64-4(53) badly needed a chance at revenge and with it the closure he is/was sure he would get – as he put it himself, an opportunity to “correct what I did wrong.”
We have seen cases of unfinished business in boxing before – with Lennox Lewis and Riddick Bowe, for one example, never getting it on in a demanded rematch of the amateur fight won by Lewis – but this case really does leave us feeling as though we have a nasty scratch we cannot quite reach. Fury WU12 Klitschko, is a result that will forever haunt a heavyweight great and his many fans.
As for the 25-0(18) Fury, well, a big part of the frustration (and overused word in this article?) is the fact that we will never get to find out just how good, how great or how special he really might have been.
