Wladimir Klitschko said he was content to bide his time and wait for “revenge” over Tyson Fury after the world heavyweight champion failed to turn up for a news conference on Monday ahead of their Oct. 29 rematch in Manchester, England.
Outspoken British boxer Fury, who rarely misses a chance to taunt his opponents, did not show up to the news conference, with a broken down car given as the reason for his nonattendance in London.
His absence came as it was confirmed Fury’s hearing with UK Anti-Doping, which had put the bout in jeopardy, would be delayed until November after a British High Court ruling said the fight could go ahead as planned.
“Tyson’s not here,” said veteran promoter Frank Warren, whose BoxNation channel is televising the fight. “His car broke down on the way down, we’ve just found out, so he’s stuck somewhere on the M6. That is a problem for us: apologies to everybody, to [Klitschko’s promotional company] K2 and Wladimir.”
“Mr [Charles] Flint, who is the head of the tribunal, has ruled that the fight will go ahead and the hearing will take place afterwards, so there is no danger of that stopping the fight happening,” he added.
Fury claimed a shock win over Ukrainian Klitschko to take the World Boxing Association, World Boxing Organization and International Boxing Federation belts in a points decision in Dusseldorf, Germany, in November last year.
The 28-year-old agreed to face Klitschko again, which meant he was stripped of the IBF title for failing to face its mandatory challenger.
“There is no way this fight does not happen unless, God forbid, one of them gets an injury,” Warren added of a fight already postponed from its original July date after Fury suffered an ankle injury.
“Apologies once again for Tyson not attending. We only spoke to him once; his battery’s gone,” Mick Hennessy, Fury’s manager, said. “He’s had problems with traffic, and also the car he was in broke down, so all we can do is get on with it.”
“This is the very first press conference Tyson has ever missed, he is normally very early at press conferences and he is normally very entertaining at press conferences. So this is not the norm and we are not making it up,” he added.
After the July bout was called off, it emerged that UK Anti-Doping had charged Fury over a urine sample taken in February last year, and his cousin Hughie with a doping offense. It was alleged the sample — taken nine months before his defeat of Klitschko — contained traces of the banned substance nandrolone.
Fury was provisionally suspended, but that ban has since been lifted.
“Fury is not here right now, but maybe he is invisible, but eventually — and I hope so — we will meet in the ring,” 40-year-old Klitschko said. “It’s okay, I can wait. I can wait, because I have enough patience, because I am really looking forward to the revenge.”
“So trust me, even if invisible Fury is here or not, I really just hope this fight is going to happen,” he said. “Even if it doesn’t happen, I will wait and eventually time will run out for the champion.”
When asked how confident he was of Fury being cleared by the hearing, Hennessy said: “Very, very confident to say the least. There’ll be a lot of things coming out for sure.”
“There has been chaos around this fight. We have had hard knocks in life, but we can happily say this will go ahead, because that is what the judge has ruled and I am so happy we can have the fight,” Fury’s uncle and trainer, Peter, said.
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