“The fight is on”, Fury’s agent Asif Vali told The Associated Press, six hours before the bout was due to take place at a 55,000-seat soccer stadium in Duesseldorf.
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In the ring, Fury claims he may retire from boxing if he fails to beat Klitschko and is left feeling like “a fraud” on Saturday.
WBA/IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (64-3, 54 KOs) and unbeaten challenger Tyson Fury (24-0, 18 KOs) weighed in for their clash Saturday night in Dusseldorf, Germany. “Yeah it will. We’ll see, but I do believe he’s in trouble”, Banks said. “You’re an old man, you’re getting knocked out”. I wish Wladimir well for the fight.
Steward, who got WBA Super, WBO and IBF title holder Klitschko back on track after a knockout defeat by Lamon Brewster in 2004, died in 2012, but Fury met the legendary trainer when he visited Klitschko’s camp in Austria.
The fight is 7/5 to go the distance while Klitschko is 43/20 to win inside the first six rounds and 9/4 for victory on points.
Although a walkover from afar, Klitschko struggled throughout the 36-minute tussle and the 31-year-old Jennings exhibited a granite chin and tremendous testicular fortitude.
But Fury, who weighed in one pound heavier than Klitschko at 247lbs on Friday, is by no means expecting his career to end in Germany.
“I believe he is insane”, said Klitschko, who is nicknamed “Dr. Steelhammer”, in an interview with Die Welt.
That is Wladimir Klitschko’s style of fighting in a nutshell.
By manners, Klitschko is probably referring to Fury’s behavior a year ago when, looking to land a sponsorship from Gillette, he promised, “I’ll shave my head, beard and pubes-all at the same time”.
“There is nothing he does which makes me think I won’t beat him”.
“The clear win is the best when you get the stoppage”.
“To me it’s just a boxing fight”.
“When someone talks as much as I talk, trying to get under Wladimir’s skin to make him come and have a punch-up with me, when it doesn’t work, I get stick – whether it’s my toe or I didn’t try or a stupid haircut”. “But everybody has a plan against me, has seen something nobody has seen before”.
“I’m a 4-1 underdog but Cassius Clay was a big underdog against Sonny Liston and so was Leon Spinks against Muhammad Ali and Buster Douglas against Mike Tyson”, he said.
“I have made a bloody fool of myself in there”, he said when reflecting on the bad nights that could so easily have diverted his career down a dead-end route.
“Without laying hands on me, it’s all sticks and stones, but has he got that mentality like I have?”
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Prediction: The fact that Fury actually trained with Klitschko years ago is a huge factor, as well as Fury’s size presenting a challenge for Klitschko to find suitable sparring partners in prepartion for the fight.
