Klitschko v Fury
KLITSCHKO v FURYALL SIGNATURES CAN BE CLEARLY SEEN ON THE ART PRINT
Title: Klitschko v Fury 28th November 2015 ~ Düsseldorf, Germany
Medium: Poster Art Print
Edition: 250
Size: 20'' x 16''
Finish: Rolled in tube
Signed by Artist: yes
Price: £45
Title: Klitschko v Fury 28th November 2015 ~
Düsseldorf, Germany
Medium: Fine Art Print
Edition: 50
Size: 24'' x 20"
Finish: Rolled in tube
Signed by Artist: yes
Price: £195
Title: Klitschko v Fury 28th November 2015 ~
Düsseldorf, Germany
Medium: Fine Art Print
Edition: 15
Size: 32" x 26"
Framed: Yes
Signed by Artist: yes
Price: £595
The Original painting was exhibited and signed by both Klitschko brothers, Vitali & Vladimir Tyson Fury, Michael Buffer and referee Tony Weeks in Düsseldorf, Germany
Wladimir Klitschko vs. Tyson Fury, billed as Kollisionskurs (German for "Collision Course")
contested for the WBA (Super), WBO, IBF, IBO, The Ring magazine, and linealheavyweight titles. The fight took place on November 27, 2015 at Esprit Arena, Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Fury was declared the winner by unanimous decision. This ended Klitschko's reign of nearly 10 years, the second longest in heavyweight history. Klitschko was entitled to a rematch per the fight contract. Despite this, Fury was stripped of the IBF heavyweight title for agreeing to the rematch instead of facing the IBF mandatory challenger, Vyacheslav Glazkov.
In 2013, after he had defeated both Kevin Johnson and Steve Cunningham in world title eliminator fights, Tyson Fury repeated that he wanted to fight Wladimir Klitschko because he was the Number 1 in the division. He had previously called him out during video interviews, but believed that the Ukrainian would retire before facing him. Fury could have fought Kubrat Pulev for the mandatory slot to fight Klitschko in mid-2013, but chose to set up an all English showdown with David Haye because "it was a far bigger fight." After originally being scheduled for 28 September 2013, Haye pulled out a week before the fight with a cut above his eye that he said happened during sparring. After the fight was rescheduled for 8 February 2014,[deprecated source] Haye pulled out for a second time after he underwent surgery on his shoulder. However, many people including Fury believed that Haye, who had already pulled out of a fight with Manuel Charr before Fury, had perhaps lost some of his passion for the sport and didn't want to fight because he feared losing, and was unnerved by Fury's attempts to sell the fight with his trash talk. Haye also reportedly said that he wasn't going to give Fury a pay day, a decision that would later come back to haunt him when he eventually made his return to boxing. After Fury defeated Klitschko, he stated that he would never give Haye the chance to fight him again after he let him down twice and wasted his time and money.
After nearly a year out of the ring as a result of the Haye saga, Fury knocked out Joey Abell in February 2014 and was then left to face Dereck Chisora for a second time, in his third world title eliminator bout. He emerged comfortably as the winner, with Chisora retiring from the fight after the tenth round. Fury then defeated Christian Hammer in February 2015, whilst maintaining that he wanted to fight Klitschko and even though promoters were now sure that they could make the fight happen, Fury himself still believed that it was unlikely to be made.
Meanwhile, Klitschko had fought off several challengers to retain his world titles since his own victory over David Haye in 2011, which saw him win the WBA Super title, his fourth heavyweight belt out of the available five. His best victory since then had come over the then unbeaten Alexander Povetkin in 2013. Klitschko had been champion since he won the IBF and IBO belts for beating Chris Byrd in 2006. After defeating Bryant Jennings in April 2015, Klitschko acknowledged his next opponent should be Fury, saying that,
"I believe that the fight with Tyson Fury will look different to this one because of the size difference – Fury is taller than me. He is definitely the guy who is ambitious and I think it is going to be exciting. I think that he is going to engage in the fight. There was not much engagement through Jennings today but I think the Fury fight will be exciting and I’m looking forward to it."
After the fight was finally announced in July 2015 and scheduled originally for 24 October, Fury said,
‘The heavyweight division has been dull for over a decade, I’m going to shake it up and bring back the sparkle.’
The late Emanuel Steward, who had been Klitschko's trainer up until his death in 2012 and had also worked with Fury, had described Fury as "the next dominant heavyweight champion" and "the heir to Klitschko's throne."
The 39 year old Klitschko would go into the fight with a record of 64-3 and unbeaten in 11 years since his defeat by Lamon Brewster in 2004, while the 27 year old Fury was unbeaten with a record of 24-0.
On fight night, a capacity crowd of 55,000 filled the Esprit Arena in Düsseldorf. Klitschko was the clear favourite with the bookies, with Fury the outsider at around 4/1.
From the off, Fury kept constantly on the move boxing off the back foot and throwing many feints, beating Klitschko to the punch from range whilst not letting Klitschko set his feet to land his own shots. Klitschko himself was used to beating fighters that were usually smaller than himself from range and then clinching them on the inside. However, Klitschko was unable to adjust his style and continued to clinch Fury on the inside whilst Fury still attempted to punch, this meant that Fury was outpunching and outlanding Klitschko in all areas. Despite the fact that it was usually Klitschko on the offensive coming towards him, Fury made himself difficult to be hit with his head and body movement, also switching to a southpaw stance at times to confuse Klitschko. Due to both fighters style and defensive skill, there were very few punch combinations landed during the fight, when one punch was landed the next punches were nearly always evaded or missed.
Some of the rounds were close but were decisive in Fury's favor due to his ring generalship and being more active than Klitschko who appeared flustered, this gave Fury what was more or less an insurmountable lead going into the later rounds. From the start Fury's tactics appeared to be to try and nullify Klitschko and make him feel uncomfortable, even putting both his hands behind his back several times during the fight. As a result of this, Klitschko was noticeably gun shy during the fight, particularly with his right hand, seemingly wary of being countered.
Fury landed the best punch of the fight in the ninth round, after the pair had been holding Klitschko turned his back momentarily and when he turned to face Fury again he was caught with a left hook to the face, with Klitschko just managing to avoid some follow up punches. In the eleventh round, Fury landed another two big left hooks and Klitschko appeared to be hurt before referee Tony Weeks docked a point for a third punch that was behind the head having already warned Fury for rabbit punching, although again it was partly Klitschko's fault for turning his back as he had done several times throughout the fight, this meant the round was scored even instead of in Fury's favour. In the twelfth and final round Klitschko finally appeared to throw caution to the wind to land some punches of his own, but Fury did the same and traded punches with him and although most scored the final round for Klitschko, when the bell sounded most people felt that Fury had done more than enough.
Two judges scored the bout 115–112, while the other scored it 116–111, all in favour of Fury which meant that he won by unanimous decision and became the new unified heavyweight champion. This put paid to any fears that there could be a controversial, disputed or an unfair decision.
After the fight Fury apologised to Klitschko for some of his behaviour in the buildup, stating that he just wanted to be confident. Fury then celebrated by singing a version of Aerosmith's "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing" to his wife Paris.
In the post-fight press conference, Klitschko was asked whether his right hand was injured as he hadn't thrown it very often but he replied, "no it wasn't injured, but my right hand is supposed to land after my left, and I couldn't find the right distance to land the shots that I wanted." Fury's trainer and uncle Peter Fury said, "this is what we've been working on in the gym for five months, to beat someone like Wladimir Klitschko you have to take boxing to a whole new level." Klitschko congratulated Fury on winning the fight and Fury also gave credit to Klitschko for the shots he did land, saying that they both found each other awkward to land on. He then said "tonight was my night and God gave me the victory, so I hope to have many more defences of these titles. And if I could just say one thing, if I could be half as good a champion as Wladimir Klitschko, I'd be very very happy."
Video link at the weigh in....in Dusseldorf ~ The original painting was signed by Vitali Klitschko, Wladimir Klitschko, Tyson Fury, Tony Weeks (referee) and Michael Buffer ring announcer
