by Johnny Walker
Fans of heavyweight boxing were pumped up last week at the news that two of the division’s top unbeaten contenders, Tyson Fury (19-0-0, 14 KOs) of the UK and Denis Boytsov (31-0-0, 25 KOs) of Germany, were set to meet in the ring on December 1 in Belfast, Ireland.
Alas, as all too often happens in boxing, it seems that this match-up was too good to be true, as the Russian-born Boytsov’s promoter Universum has announced that their charge is not ready to face the Anglo-Irish giant.
“Unfortunately Denis is not in the shape to contest such an duel now. The bout could be placed in 2013”, said Universum in a prepared statement.
Problems between Universum and Boytsov have caused the muscular 26-year-old’s career to stagnate over the last two years: his last scheduled fight versus Konstantin Airich was also scrapped due to a mysterious illness attributed to Boytsov.
Although both parties here are making the correct noises re a “postponement” of Fury-Boytsov, it remains to be seen if the fight will now ever take place.
Tyson Fury’s trainer and uncle, Peter Fury, expressed disappointment over the cancellation via his Twitter account, and said his nephew will still fight on the December 1 date in Dublin.
“I’m sorry to announce Boytsov is out. We looking to reschedule the fight for mid Feb. Boytsov said he needs more time to prepare for Tyson,” writes the trainer.
“We are now on with another opponent for Dec 1st. That’s all I know for now.”
Previously considered opponents for Fury’s scheduled Belfast bash have included former champ Ruslan Chagaev and top heavyweight Tomasz Adamek, but like Boytsov, they too chose to take another direction.