Skip to content
Home » Fury bamboozles Klitschko, becomes unified champion

Fury bamboozles Klitschko, becomes unified champion

The 26 year-old from Great Britain followed an almost floorless gameplan, probably the only one that could beat Klitschko, to take the WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO away from the Ukrainian after a decade of domination.

Fury’s tactics were simple and affective, to rattle Klitschko from the word go and make him work hard without landing a punch. After four or five rounds, Klitschko seemed to wake up and realise he’d hardly landed anything telling, but by that time it was too late and Fury had the foothold he needed in the fight.

Klitschko, 39, rallied through the mid rounds, but Fury knew by then he only needed a couple of rounds in the bank to be sure of victory and still got the decision despite a point deduction in the eleventh for rabbit punching. Klitschko was hurt and out on his feet in that round, although it was too late for the challenger to capitalize and both went into the final round knowing they needed contrasting fortunes. Klitschko had some success in the last session but Fury held on and was declared the victor 116-111 and 115-112 (twice) on the cards.

The win represents one of the biggest upsets in recent times, although telling that to Fury would fall on deaf ears as the Briton had prophesized his feat from the very beginning and followed through to earn his place as the top 200 plus fighter in the world.

After the bout, Fury sang Aerosmith’s ‘I don’t wanna miss a thing’ to the crowd to cement himself as one of the most colourful title holders on the planet.