By: William Holmes

On Saturday night Wladimir Klitschko will return to familiar stomping grounds as he defends his WBA, WBO, and IBF Heavyweight titles against the always entertaining Tyson Fury at the ESPIRIT Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany. HBO will be televising this fight in the United States and will show fans a replay of last week’s pay per view middleweight title bout between Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez, which Alvarez won by decision.

Klitschko and Fury were originally scheduled to box each other on October 24th, 2015, but the bout was postponed to this Saturday due to a calf injury that Klitschko was recovering from.

The following is a preview of Saturday’s heavyweight title fight between Klitschko and Fury.
Wladimir Klitschko (64-3) vs. Tyson Fury (24-0); WBA, WBO, IBF Heavyweight Titles

Wladimir Klitschko has held a heavyweight title since April 22nd, 2006 and is one of the longest reigning heavyweight champions of all time.

Klitschko is excellent at using his physical traits to his advantage. However, this will be the first fight that Klitschko will not be longer and taller than his opponent. Fury is three inches taller than Klitschko and will also have a four inch reach advantage. Fury is also twenty seven and is twelve years younger than Klitschko.

Klitschko had a more successful amateur career as he was a gold medal winner in 1996 in the Super Heavyweight Division. Fury also had a successful amateur career, but lost out to David Price for a chance to compete in the 2008 Olympics and turned professional instead of waiting for a chance to compete in the 2012 Olympics.

Many critics state Klitschko is a boring fighter, but the stats seem to suggest otherwise. He has a high knockout ratio and has stopped fifty three of his opponents, including three of his past five opponents. His three losses came early in his career, but they were all by stoppage.

Fury, like Klitschko, comes from a boxing family as his father was a bare knuckle fighter and two of his cousins, Andy Lee and Hughie Fury, are currently having successful boxing careers.

Klitschko clearly has the better professional resume. His three losses came before 2006 and were to Lamon Brewster, Corrie Sanders, and Ross Puritty. Klitschko used to have a reputation of having a glass jaw, but his undefeated streak as the heavyweight champion since 2006 has erased most of those doubts.

Klitschko has defeated the likes of Bryant Jennings, Kubrat Pulev, Alexander Povetkin, Mariusz Wach, Tony Thompson, David Haye, Samuel Peter, Eddie Chambers, Ruslan Chagaev, Hasim Rahman, Sultan Ibragimov, Lamon Brewster and Chris Byrd.

Fury has spent most of his career fighting in Europe and has defeated the likes of Dereck Chisora, Christian Hammer, Kevin Johnson, and former Cruiserweight World Champion Steve Cunningham.

Fury’s fight with Cunningham is notable due to the fact that he struggled early on and was violently knocked down by Cunningham, a boxer that is not known for his power, and had to resort to leaning on Cunningham with his massive size advantage to wear him down and stop him late.

This fight will present an interesting challenge for Klitschko as he has never faced someone the size of Tyson Fury. But this is a fight that Klitschko should win since Fury has never faced someone with the talent of Klitschko, and if Cunningham can badly hurt Fury; Klitschko will likely be able to do the same.

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