Photos: Wladimir Klitschko Putting in Work for Tyson Fury Rematch

By Jake Donovan

Most of the significant heavyweight action as of late has landed on Showtime’s side of the street, but HBO still has a vested interest in boxing’s most storied division.

The American cable giant has recently secured U.S. TV rights for the July 9 rematch between World heavyweight king Tyson Fury and former champ Wladimir Klitschko. The two will collide at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England, with the bout to air live on HBO beginning at 5:00 p.m. ET.

The event will also air live on Boxnation in the United Kingdom and RTL in Germany.

Fury (25-0, 18KOs) capped a career-best year in 2015 with a 12-round unanimous decision win over Klitschko last November in Dusseldorf, Germany. The bout itself was a dud, featuring little action between the heavyweight behemoths, but with the visiting Fury doing more than enough to avoid getting robbed on the road.

The feat marked the end of an incredible run by Klitschko (64-4, 53KOs), who’d held at least one heavyweight belt since April ’06, making 18 successful title defenses along the way. Fury marked the ninth unbeaten title challenger or fellow titlist he’d faced over the course of his lengthy reign, including six in his previous bouts.

In traveling to Fury’s home country, Klitschko will fight in England for just the second time in his pro career. The first such occasion will have taken place 16 years almost to the day by the time the rematch rolls around, as he knocked out Monte Barrett in the 7th round of their July ’00 clash in London.

The aforementioned win was Klitschko’s last fight as a contender as well as his HBO debut. His next fight kicked off his first title reign, scoring a lopsided 12-round win over Chris Byrd in Oct’ 00 to pick up a heavyweight belt. Five defenses followed before running into Corrie Sanders, suffering a shocking 2nd round knockout loss in their March ’03 clash.

It would take two swings at becoming a two-term heavyweight titlist, having first punched himself into exhaustion versus Lamon Brewster in their April ’04 vacant title fight before scoring a repeat win over Chris Byrd two years later to collect his second belt.

The upcoming rematch with Fury will mark Klitschko’s 22nd career appearance on HBO. A win would place him in historic company, joining the likes of Floyd Patterson, Muhammad Ali, Evander Holyfield, George Foreman and Lennox Lewis as the only boxers in history to have twice served as lineal heavyweight champion (Ali is the only three-time lineal champ).

Fury has yet to defend the title since his career-best win last November, as he was bound to an exclusive rematch clause.

The victory came with four belts in tow in addition to the lineal championship. However, the timing of Klitschko exercising his rematch clause forced Fury to vacate the International Boxing Federation (IBF) belt, due to not being able to defend versus then-mandatory challenger Vyacheslav Glazkov in the time frame set forth by the sanctioning body.

It seems to matter little to Fury, who’s prepared to dump more alphabet belts if not retire from the sport altogether following the upcoming rematch.

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Follow his shiny new Twitter account: @JakeNDaBox_v2