Klitschko will have to be a different fighter than he was Saturday, a different fighter than he has been for much of his career?
The heavyweight title used to be called the biggest prize in sports. Boxing?s popularity has waxed and waned, as has the quality of the heavyweights. But everyone from Toledo to Timbuktu knows that Tyson Fury defeated Wladimir Klitschko last week to claim the heavyweight crown.
It was, and still appears to be, all the news that?s fit to print.
Temperamentally, Fury and Klitschko are like night and day, but there was no differentiating night from day under the hot lights over the ring.
Tyson Fury brought it, whereas Wladimir Klitschko took it, and that was all she wrote.
At the conclusion of the bout Klitschko said, ?There will be a rematch. It is still early and I have to process things but there will definitely be a rematch.?
That may have sounded like wishful thinking at the time, but Dr. Steelhammer knew what he was talking about. He had studied the contract, no less than the contractual option for a rematch, and has decided, to no one?s surprise, to exercise that option.
That?s a tough break for the likes of Deontay Wilder, David Haye, Anthony Joshua, Vyacheslav Glazkov, and every other heavyweight who expressed an interest in fighting the new champion.
They will have to wait their turn.
?I was really frustrated after the fight,? said Klitschko, ?but after some short nights I now know that I want to show that I am much better than my performance on Saturday. I couldn?t show my full potential at any time. This is what I want to change in the rematch?and I will. The Klitschko story will continue. Failure is not an option.?
That?s a big nut to crack, in more ways than one, and Klitschko will have to be a different fighter than he was Saturday night, maybe even a different fighter than he has been for much of his career.
But it looks like the rematch is a go.
?There will be a huge worldwide interest in this fight which already can be billed as the fight of the year in 2016,? said Bernd B?nte, CEO Klitschko Management Group. ?We received so many questions from fans and journalists after last Saturday. The new champion and his challenger will answer all of them inside the ring.?
That?s where these things should be decided, as they have always been, and as they will always be.
