Just disposed Heavyweight champion, Wladimir Klitschko will exercise his contractual rematch clause with Tyson Fury following Saturday’s fight which saw Fury lift the Heavyweight championship from Klitschko in Dusseldorf, Germany, according to Dan Rafael of espn.com.
“I was really frustrated directly after the fight, but after some short nights, I now know that I want to show that I am much better than my performance on Saturday,” Klitschko said. “I couldn’t show my full potential at any time. This is what I want to change in the rematch — and I will. Failure is not an option.”
“There will be a huge worldwide interest in this fight, which already can be billed as the fight of the year 2016,” Bernd Boente, Klitschko’s manager, said. “We received so many questions of fans and journalists after last Saturday. The new champion and his challenger will answer all of them inside the ring.”
Mick Hennessy, Fury’s promoter, told ESPN.com that their side was thrilled that Klitschko elected to go for the rematch.
“We relish [that he exercised] that option,” Hennessy said. “There’s no bigger fight than fighting Wladimir again. [A title unification fight with Deontay] Wilder is nowhere near as big. And [mandatory challenger Vyacheslav] Glazkov? Come on. He’s an unknown. He doesn’t bring anything to the table in any way shape or form. … We were worried Wladimir wouldn’t take the rematch. We are delighted. It’s good that Wladimir made the decision quickly. We can strike while the iron’s hot. We’ll see an even better Tyson in the rematch.”
Klitschko’s decision to take the rematch isn’t a surprise, although he took time to digest the defeat. On Monday, Klitschko wrote on social media: “I still don’t believe I actually lost. Man, I’m suffering.”
“We’ll be looking at venues everywhere and we’ll go where it will gross the most money,” Hennessy said. “There are massive stadiums here in England but everyone wants the fight. I’ve had contacts from abroad, the (United Arab Emirates) as well. We are excited — both sides are to make this a super fight.”
“We are very, very happy with Tyson’s situation in this deal as champion. We’re done,” Hennessy said.
Hennessy said if the Fury-Klitschko rematch happens without the IBF involved, so be it.
“If they’re going to manipulate this situation to have two average fighters not worthy of the heavyweight title fighting (for the IBF belt), they’re going to push Tyson, who is the lineal champion, into a position where he will do a press conference put that belt into the (trash) bin,” he said. “We feel they’ve shown zero respect for the new champion or for the former champion, who held their title for 9½ years.
