Can The Doctor Supply Smelling Salts For The Sweet Science?
By K.Carter
16.11 - Boxing, one of the oldest forms of sport, still has its serious fans, but it needs to rediscover and cater to the casual fan. We all read about the crooked activities of promoters and the ABC sanctioning bodies. We witness seemingly rigged judging and bizarre officiating. There is almost no network television exposure for the sweet science. Figures in the boxing world are constantly suing each other in multi-million dollar round-robin litigation tournaments, and need I even mention Don King? Don King! Sometimes it seems as though the planets are aligned against pugilism. However, boxing is so very compelling, all it really needs is a dominating, recognizable heavyweight champion with character - good character, lousy character, just character - to help catapult it back into the consciousness of the casual fight fan.
True big fight excitement and anticipation stems from the existence of a champion that popular consensus holds as very unlikely to be beaten, and that champion taking on the best opponents in the world. The presence of a champion whom casual sports fans are familiar with, and whom they understand to be the champion, will draw interest, generate boxing talk, and get boxing back in the news. It may actually drag some fans back to the real ring, and away from professional wrestling!
The heavyweight division is the glamour division. It always has been, and always will be. Boxing is suffering right now because the heavyweight division has no certifiable household name to capture the general public's attention as the new "Baddest Man On The Planet." Since his mauling by Lennox Lewis, Iron Mike has lost a lot of his luster. Lennox, although a great champion and skilled fighter, has twice fell victim to flash one-punch flash knockouts dished out by underdogs. Though he dominated Hasim Rahman and Oliver McCall in their respective rematches, it did little to remove the images of Lennox flat on his back. Holyfield is near the end of a great career. Ibeabuchi is locked up in the dirty sock motel. Byrd has no punch. Tua has only a punch. There are a slew of good fighters, but who is going to be the one to grab the public's attention and enhance the visibility of boxing?
Since you are reading a boxing column on a boxing website, you probably already know. "The heir apparent" is Wladimir Klitschko (39-1-1 36 KO). He's big. He's intelligent. He's got quickness and agility belying his 6'7", 245 lb. frame. Oh yeah, he hits really, really hard. He, like Tyson, blows his opponents away in awe-inspiring offensive displays that fans savor. But, unlike Tyson, Wlad was once defeated before obtaining his shot at the heavyweight championship, tainting his record and causing some observers to question his legitimacy ever since. It is a shame, but boxing fans are currently deprived of the best fight to be made in its number one division. Klitschko vs. Lewis is not happening simply because Wladimir does not have the necessary exposure in the US to generate the pay-per-view dollars Lennox needs to justify the risk of accepting a fight with him. So, we sit and we wait, while Lewis's age and Wladimir's supremacy both grow more pronounced.
A review of Wladimir's most recent fights shows his remarkable improvement, and his utter subjugation of the competition. Early in his career, he scored numerous rapid knockouts, but he was fighting bona fide tomato cans. Since his loss to Purrity in 1998, where he punched himself into a state of total exhaustion before his corner stopped the fight, Klitschko has become a more exciting and vastly improved fighter. He has had 15 subsequent fights, and he has knocked out 14 of these 15 opponents. Only the oft avoided southpaw Chris Byrd, Wladimir's most respected opponent to date, lasted long enough to lose a decision, but even the slippery Byrd was knocked down twice while on the way to losing the WBO Heavyweight Championship.
Against Axel Schulz (25-2-3), Wlad easily pounded a quality fighter into a swollen mess, becoming both the European Heavyweight Champion, and the only man to ever stop Schulz.
In the first round of his fight with the severely overmatched Phil Jackson (43-8-0), Jackson landed 0/27 punches. In the second round, Jackson was hit so hard that he fell, stood up, looked around, and fell back down again, prompting medical staff to enter the ring.
In his match against Paea Wolfgramm (18-1-0), whom he defeated for the Gold Medal in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Klitschko landed a brutal combination, scoring a first round KO on his 285lb opponent.
David Bostice (21-1-1), at the time considered a tough test, was knocked down four times en route to a humiliating 2nd round KO.
Entering his bout vs. Klitschko, Monte Barret (23-1-1) had never been knocked down. Wladimir dropped him five times - three times in the final minute of round seven, prompting HBO commentator Jim Lampley to exclaim, "You can see the blood spurting from Barret's face!"
After being KO'd by Wladimir in a contest that saw him knocked down three times in under two rounds, "Dangerous" Derrick Jefferson (23-1-2) looked like he had gone skydiving and his parachute didn't open. After the fight, Jefferson joked, "Maybe I'll take up golf."
Klitschko stopped Charles Shufford (17-1-0) by unleashing a short left hook that sounded like a rifle shot, sending Shufford skidding to the ropes. Upon rising, Shufford looked like a drunk fresh from COPS as he tried to walk toward the referee. Lennox Lewis' own Hall Of Fame trainer, Emanuel Steward, was working the fight at ringside and said, "That is one of the best right hands I've ever seen. Not just tonight, but in the history of boxing."
After claiming he would knock Wladimir out, Frans Botha (44-3-1) suffered the opposite; an eighth round TKO. Botha himself was probably seeing white buffaloes for a few days after the fight, considering the powerful right hands he absorbed that night.
Finally, against "Merciless" Ray Mercer (30-4-1), we finally saw Wladimir consistently throwing punches with ill intent. Mercer is not in his prime, but his chin is still granite; he had never been knocked down from a punch to the head. Klitschko knocked him down with a hook to the temple in round one, and landed a pulverizing 104 of 167 total power shots. Mercer, by comparison, landed only five of 10 power shots over the entire six-round contest!
Wladimir Klitschko is not only beating his opponents, he is destroying them. He also has a new HBO contract for a minimum of six fights. The Klitschko brothers are learning English, and they are coming to the United States. Once their crushing style makes its way into of the average American household through HBO, the financial possibility for a large-scale pay-per-view event with Lewis solidifies. It is only a matter of time until the Klitschko brothers ascend to their dream of simultaneously holding the World Heavyweight Championship(s). On December 7th, Wladimir quite literally takes a "giant" step towards realizing this goal, namely 6'6", 260 lb contender Jameel "Big Time" McCline, in one of the most exciting heavyweight matches in recent memory.
At 26 years old, Dr. Wladimir Klitschko has all of the tools to transcend boxing. Whenever showing tapes of his fights to people who are not really boxing fans, they will invariably glimpse a devastating knockout and say, "Wait! Rewind that!" They just have to watch it again, and that is precisely what Wladimir has the potential to bring back to boxing - the need to watch it again.
