Tyson Fury TKO’s Hammer, Wladimir Klitschko In Crosshairs

0
4357

 

tyson-furyTyson Fury (24-0, 18 KOs) easily retained his WBO International Heavyweight Title against Christian Hammer (17-4, 10 KOs) in what ended up being the lopsided affair many of us had anticipated in the lead up to the fight.

Although there was the added intrigue of Fury taking this “stay-busy” fight and risking a huge fight with world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko down the road, it became clear rather early that those worries were unfounded.

Things had been already interesting before the fight got underway. Tyson Fury’s entrance was accompanied by a performance by an Elvis impersonator and then during the announcements Fury’s glove was found to have a split in it. After a slight delay, the glove was replaced, and the fight got underway.

The tempo of the fight was established fairly early with Tyson Fury controlling things with his long jab and better boxing skills. Fury was jawing at Hammer a bit and tying him up whenever Hammer would try to bull rush his way inside. This was the story of the fight, with Fury in total control and winning every round while Hammer tried to charge in and trap Fury against the ropes to varying degrees of ineffectiveness.

It was in the fifth round, when the inevitable happened, and Fury landed a big right that had Hammer crumple to the canvas. Although the punch looked pretty nasty, Hammer was back on his feet pretty quickly and weathered the storm that followed. Fury clearly wanted to get him out of there, but it would have to wait a few more rounds.

After the fifth round, the pattern repeated itself with Fury landing a lot of good shots and Hammer being mostly ineffective. With Hammer taking consistent punishment over the last half of the fight, his corner had seen enough and threw in the towel before the eighth round was underway.

Tyson Fury avoided the pitfalls that come with looking ahead and took care of business. Wladimir Klitschko faces Bryant Jennings in April, and as long as he does what everyone expects him to do in that fight, he will probably meet Tyson Fury in the ring sometime in late 2015.