Tyson Fury stripped of IBF title

Tyson Fury, who won three heavyweight titles by beating Wladimir Klitschko not even two weeks ago, has been officially stripped by of his IBF strap for declining to make a deal with Vyacheslav Glazkov. The sanctioning body had ordered Fury to immediately negotiate a deal with Glazkov to make his first mandatory title defense, but with Wladimir Klitschko enforcing his contracted immediate rematch clause with Tyson Fury, Fury was put in a tough predicament.

Fury really had to fight Klitschko next, but with him being stripped of his title 10 days after winning it, I sort of wonder if he's set some sort of Guinness World Record for being the shortest reigning heavyweight champion of all time. In any event, the IBF has now ordered Glazkov (21-0-1, 13 KOs) to face Charles Martin (22-0-1, 20 KOs) for their now vacant title.

Mick Hennessy, Fury's promoter, has express his disappointment in the IBF stripping Fury, even if the sanctioning body was following its own rules:

"If the IBF are going to make a belated moral judgment and strip Tyson Fury because, apparently, [Klitschko promotional company] K2 never told them about the rematch clause, surely they should be just as moral and not take the large sanction fees they are taking," Hennessy told ESPN.com. "In my opinion, the IBF should be ashamed of themselves. First, they called for private negotiations. Canceled. Then they called for purse bids. Canceled. Then they strip Tyson of his title for something he had no control over.

"Tyson as a fighter, Peter [Fury, his uncle] as a trainer and us as a promotional outfit, we did things properly. We went after the elite lineal heavyweight champion in Wladimir Klitschko. We took the hardest route of all and pulled it off big-time."

Glazkov was a man with a couple options, which I suppose is a good position to be in. He was the IBF's mandatory challenger and had been offered a title shot against Deontay Wilder on a Jan. 16th Showtime card. Ultimately, it appears he chose the path of least resistance by opting to challenge for the IBF's now-vacant title.

With the heavyweight titles being spread out once again, it seems improbably that we'll ever have a unified champion in boxing's traditional glamour division.