Tyson Fury's fame hit new heights when he did the unthinkable and beat
Wladimir Klitschko in Dusseldorf back in November 2015. Since then he has been
stripped by the IBF and now a tournament has been organised by the WBA that
Fury is mandated to be part of. I want to investigate why these decisions have
been made by the governing bodies so soon after Fury’s victory.
Firstly, we must deal with the IBF situation. When Fury signed a
contract to fight Klitschko, in this contract there was a rematch clause for the
Ukrainian if he lost. This meant that Fury was contractually objurgated to go
into a rematch with him, if he did not then he would lose the WBO, IBO, WBA
(super) and ring magazine belts. This was something that he was evidently not
prepared to do.
The IBF had already stated that the winner of Fury and Klitschko had to
face mandatory challenger Vyacheslav Glazkov otherwise they would be stripped
of his belt. Fury won so had to go into the rematch with Klitschko, and he was
then stripped by the IBF. The IBF are the strictest body and they do strip
champions if they do not fight mandatories unlike other bodies. However in this
situation because Fury was contractually forced into the rematch with
Klitschko, the IBF could have taken a different approach rather than stripping
him.
Now the WBA situation. Gilberto Mendoza, the WBA president has decided
that it is finally time to remove the two world titles, the super and the
regular, from their governing body which is certainly a good thing for the
sport. However this has meant that Fury has been ordered to take part in a
tournament where he first has to fight Klitschko and then probably Luis Ortiz
who is the third best fighter in the tournament, before he then fights Chagaev,
Browne or Oquendo who are on the other side of the draw.
Ortiz and Klitschko are the two most dangerous fighters and they are the
ones who Fury will have to face first. Only after has he won those three fights
can he be officially named as the WBA heavyweight champion of the world.
As soon as Fury became champion of the world the governing bodies have very
hard for him to unify the titles providing he keeps winning until, probably at
the earliest, 2018. What should have happened is the rematch with Klitschko and
then a unification fight with Deontay Wilder, if he beat Klitschko, around September
time. It looks like Lennox Lewis is going to remain the last unified
heavyweight champion of the world for a while longer.
Tom Eckett
@boxingguru44
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