Photo By Getty Images
The last time Wladimir Klitschko lost a fight, Google had just rolled out Gmail, and everyone hated it. It was 11 years ago this month when Klitschko, in the midst of a serious crisis of confidence, collapsed in a heap at the end of the fifth round of his fight with Lamon Brewster.
Brewster, a decidedly average Heavyweight in an age where “average” earned you a title shot, didn’t really do anything special that night. It appeared as though Klitschko had decided against warming up in the dressing room and instead went on a 47 mile hike. He was absolutely gassed by Round 4. He stumbled around the ring like a helpless giraffe, sucking air in a desperate attempt to recuperate.
It would be his second knockout loss in 13 months, another humiliation for a man who was once touted as the heir to Lennox Lewis’ throne. Now he was just another hype job–big but soft, powerful but gutless. He began to slowly rebuild his career. He scored a shaky win over DaVarryl “No, Seriously, I Was A Contender Once” Williamson, and then beat Samuel Peter a couple of fights later in another odd affair. He won nearly every round but was dropped three times, further adding to the notion that he had Egyptian cotton for a jawline.
Finally, two years after that final defeat, things came together for the Ukrainian giant. He fought the slick Chris Byrd, and beat the living shit out of him. It was a masterful performance, and from that point forward, Klitschko has been a monster amongst mere mortals.
The Heavyweight division has been a dreadful mess for years. This is well documented, so I won’t waste time lamenting about the lost days of Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and George Foreman. The Klitschko brothers have long dominated the scene, batting around the order of top 10 heavies so easily that sometimes they came back around the order again, simply because there was nowhere else to go.
Now, with his brother Vitali retired and settling into a life of politics, Wladimir continues to bash away on hopelessly overmatched opponents. He continues to age marvelously. The unsure, insecure, unsteady mess from a decade ago is long, long gone. What has taken its place is a stone cold assassin.
His last fight, against a tough-as-nails Kubrat Pulev, perfectly illustrated the change in demeanor. Pulev repeatedly tried bullying Klitschko, drilling him in the back of the head with about three dozen rabbit punches. The normally solid referee Tony Weeks did absolutely nothing to stop it, so Pulev just kept slamming away with the illegal punches.
The 2004 version of Klitschko would have probably slumped to the canvas and folded like a lawn chair. This version? The blows simply pissed him off. In the fifth, Pulev landed a hard right hand before the fighters clinched. After Weeks separated the fighters, Klitschko unleashed a massive left hook, flooring Pulev. He then stood in the corner and taunted his foe as he was being counted out. It was a clear message–he is the champ, and there will be no bullying the champ.
Saturday on HBO, Klitschko takes on Bryant Jennings, a Philadelphian fighter who squeaked by Mike Perez last summer in a battle of undefeated prospects. Jennings, who doesn’t have the power to hurt Klitschko, will have to try and outbox him. It’s a daunting task for a guy who is taking a MASSIVE step up in competition. It’s been hard enough for anybody to even land a decent punch on Klitschko, let alone outbox him over 12 rounds.
It would be a massive upset if Jennings pulled it off. In fact, it would be way less of a surprise if Klitschko knocked him out in the first round. But Klitschko is keenly aware of the implications for this fight. It’s his first battle on U.S. soil in years, and his last venture over here left a less-than-pleasant taste in the mouths of anyone unfortunate enough to watch his hideous fight with Sultan Ibragimov. Of course, the petrified Ibragimov had a lot to do with stinking the place out, but still, Klitschko wants nothing less than an emphatic knockout.
Deontay Wilder finally stepped up the competition from fighting inanimate objects to actual contenders, and he whitewashed Bermane Stiverne in January. Obviously, we’d love to see Klitschko and Wilder battle it out. Wilder is young, he’s even taller than Klitschko, and he’s finally proven himself worthy of a title shot. Maybe the Jennings fight will bring us a step closer to that scrap, though it doesn’t feel like Klitschko would be the one with any trepidation.
Someday, whether he slows down with age or finally meets up with a true contender, Wladimir Klitschko will find himself in a serious battle. Maybe before he hangs up the gloves, he’ll give us an epic two or three fight series against a proper adversary. Or, he’ll just continue to beat the shit out of every poor fella they see fit to put in there with him.
Either way, he’ll retire having gone on one of the greatest title reigns of all time. It’s not his fault that the competition has ranged from mediocre to hey-I-found-this-homeless-guy-to-fight awful. All he’s done is clean out the entire Heavyweight division for a decade, and he’s still going strong.
That’s nothing to scoff at in any era.
Some Random Notes From Last Weekend’s Fights
Lucas Matthysse vs. Ruslan Provodnikov pretty much lived up to the hype, and it confirmed my suspicions that Provodnikov’s skull is protected by the same shield as those alien ships from Independance Day. Promoter Oscar De La Hoya was pretty quick to shoot down a rematch, and I don’t really blame him. Matthysse probably wouldn’t do any better the second time around, and the fight was pretty damn close. In fact, for all of his power, Matthysse was the one hurt and holding on in the 11th.
Terence Crawford looked like shit for a few rounds, but that’s the scary thing about elite fighters–when they warm up, it’s on. That right hand he unleashed was an absolute missile. Crawford is also a wicked closer. When he has his man hurt, he shuts down the show with the best of ‘em.
Let’s hope for a Crawford-Matthysse fight, asap.
I don’t know what was sadder, seeing Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. whine incessantly to the ref, or seeing him make Andrzej Fonfara, who is about as graceful as an inebriated Sasquatch, look like the second coming of Roy Jones.
Fonfara is clamoring for a rematch with Stevenson, and I’d actually like to see it. He looked like a different man on Saturday. Still, it’s easy to fight better when you know the man in front of you can’t hurt you. Stevenson hurts.
In the latest entry of the “Jim Gray as a Penis” chronicles, we got to watch him react in horror when Chavez, concussed and in shaky English, professed that he thought he won the fight. Or was winning the fight. Or who gives a shit. Stop jamming microphones into the faces of guys who’ve just gotten the piss beaten out of them, or expect some weird conversations.
