Newly crowned heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury has been stripped of his IBF title belt for declining to arrange a mandatory defence against No1 challenger Vyacheslav “Czar” Glazkov.
Fury, 27, won the IBF, belt as well as the WBA and WBO titles when he scored a momentous win via unanimous decision against over Wladimir Klitschko in November, to end the Ukrainians 9 year title reign and 11-year unbeaten streak.
The IBF cancelled the purse bid for Fury-Glazkov after the champion announced he would be facing Klitschko in a 2016 rematch, which was part of the contractual agreement from the last fight. On Tuesday they agreed to strip the new British champion fragmenting the richest prize in sport once again.
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“It’s true he’s been stripped of his IBF belt,” said IBF chairman Lindsey Tucker.
“Our challenger was Vyacheslav Glazkov, but instead Fury’s gone and signed a rematch clause with Wladimir Klitschko.”
The heavyweight division currently has two world champions including Fury and WBC titlelist unbeaten American Deontay Wilder with a third champion now being lined up by the IBF it looks like the titles will be fragmented again after the Klitschko brothers held them together for so long.
The IBF ordered Florida based Russian Glazkov to face unbeaten American Charles Martin for their vacant belt.
This really is a drastic move by the sanctioning body. There was nothing Fury could have done to stop it but fight Glazkov but unless he fitted him in before Klitschko it was never on the cards and a big money rematch with Klitschko made more sense to everyone, just not the IBF.
The heavyweight division is getting very interesting again indeed, the Klitschko brothers were outstanding champions but the landscape is now shifting we are entering a new era and it will take another boxing great to amalgamate all the belts into one again and to be called undisputed champion for real! It may take a long long time before that happens.
