Tyson Fury Next Fight: Wladimir Klitschko Bout Would Complete Ideal Boxing Year

Tyson Fury has been on the path to fighting Wladimir Klitschko for the WBO Heavyweight Championship. There's also a bigger picture starting to develop for the sport of boxing, assuming the two sides are able to work out terms for a mega showdown. 

Fury dispatched his most recent obstacle, Christian Hammer, in dominant fashion on Saturday night. The 26-year-old put on a clinic before Hammer's corner decided to throw in the towel after the eighth round, via Frank Warren Boxing Promotions:

After the bout was over, via BBC Sport, Fury left no doubt about what he wanted to do next:

That's not a surprise to anyone who listened to Fury talk before his fight with Hammer. Per Martin Domin of the Daily Mail, the WBO international heavyweight champion said Klitschko would present no problem in a fight. 

"I would like to fight Wladimir [Klitschko] first because No. 1 he's my mandatory, No. 2 he's the best in the division and No. 3 because he is an easy fight," Fury said. "Then I'll fight Wilder. I won't be taking any interim fights—I'll unify straight away."

The last line about unifying the titles is a development that should have the boxing gods smiling. There are too many championships in boxing, with Klitschko holding five different heavyweight belts, but if one match can bring all the big ones together, imagine the possibilities. 

Combine that with the potential attraction of seeing the undefeated Fury, who has won 18 of his 24 matches by knockout, against Klitschko (who is riding a nearly 11-year winning streak of 21-0), and boxing can have its second megafight of the year. 

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In case you hadn't heard, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao have agreed to battle on May 2. Early projections for that dream match, per ESPN's Dan Rafael, note it could gross as much as $400 million—to say nothing of the headlines and press it will get from television and the Internet. 

While no one would suggest a Fury-Klitschko bout would do business that big, it would give boxing the perfect one-two punch to pair with Mayweather vs. Pacquiao.

If the Fury-Klitschko showdown occurred in September or October, it would be far enough away from Mayweather vs. Pacquiao to stand on its own terms but within the same calendar year to give boxing all it needs to claim this as one of the biggest years the sport has had in a long time. 

Heavyweight boxing has been struggling for a long time. One reason is because Klitschko, who has been well-compensated despite not fighting in the United States or on U.S. pay-per-view regularly, doesn't make himself accessible for a huge audience, via Chris Williams of Boxing News 24:

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Despite holding down heavyweight titles since 2006, Wladimir doesn’t routinely make the big money that smaller fighters like Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao made for some reason. The fans don’t get excited in the same way that they do for those fighters’ bouts. Wladimir also doesn’t usually fight in the United States, and it’s unthinkable that he would ever have a pay-per-view bout in the U.S., no matter who he were facing.

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It may not be possible to get Klitschko vs. Fury in the United States—not that it matters since Pacquiao's last bout against Chris Algieri was in Macau—but getting it on worldwide pay-per-view would be an easy sell because of how simple it is to market the fight. 

Whatever happens with the actual marketing and selling of the fight, boxing would be on its way to a stellar year with Mayweather vs. Pacquiao in the spring and a heavyweight title showdown between Fury and Klitschko in the fall.