Tyson Fury has set his sights on a showdown with Wladimir Klitschko after defeating Christian Hammer to retain the European heavyweight title at London's O2 Arena on Saturday night.

The 26-year-old Manchester fighter saw off his opponent after the towel came in from the Romanian’s corner during the eighth round.

Fury is the mandatory challenger for Klitschko’s WBO belt and is also on the radar of WBC champion Deontay Wilder.

A UK-based bout is already under negotiation between the Fury and Klitschko camps and the Briton is already plotting a subsequent unification bout against Wilder.

After claiming his 24th professional win from as many contests, Fury told BoxNation: “I want Klitschko next.”

Fury was on the front foot from the off and got his feet going in an energetic first round, switching to southpaw before getting some shots in.

The Englishman, who at 6 ft 9 in had a seven-inch height advantage over Hammer, began to dominate in the second round and reverted back to southpaw from his usual orthodox stance, firing in some right-hand jabs.

He remained southpaw with Hammer missing with some big looping rights and Fury landing some clean hits towards the end of the third round.

Fury was swapping and changing, reverting to orthodox in the fourth as his opponent kept coming forward but the 27-year-old Romanian, who lies third in the WBO rankings, was down in the fifth with a minute to go — soaking up the shots to see out a tough round.

The Briton remained in control in the sixth as Hammer threw out some big, inaccurate shots, while Fury continued to pepper the blows in the seventh with Hammer still taking it well.

The eighth saw some more southpaw from Fury before reverting back to orthodox and he connected with a big uppercut before the towel was thrown in from Hammer’s corner, handing a dominant victory to the man from Wythenshawe.

Fury added after the bout: “I’m here to entertain. He was very tough. He took a lot of punishment.”