10.04.04 – By Lee Hayes – Tonight, heavyweight hopeful, Wladimir Klitschko faces off against journeyman heavyweight Lamon Brewster. It is not a test of Wladimir’s ascension to the throne, or an indicator of his greatness. It is merely a test of the durability of his chin and a gage of just how much psychological damage his brutal knock out loss at the hands of South African, semi-retired heavyweight, Corrie Sanders has had on Wlad. If Wlad looks impressive in a walk-over, it may not even give us the answers. Truly, what we, the boxing fans and public, need to see is how Wladimir reacts after being hit on the chin repetitively by a top heavyweight’s best punches. We also need to see if Wlad can recover from a knockdown, as he was unable to in the Sanders bought.
A lot of articles have been written about the brothers and their dual heir apparent status in the heavyweight division. The die hard fans of the brothers will tell you that the people that now make derogatory comments are simply guilty of hopping the bandwagon. To some extent, they have a point. Outside of Emanuel Stewart, who now trains both brothers, the entire HBO broadcasting staff that once built up Wladimir now treat him with disdain and act as though their “told ya so” attitude was something obvious all along, ignoring the gloating accolades they once bestowed on Wlad, the younger of the brothers. But this writer has a different take. Many of these Klitschko fans are just as guilty of the same bandwagon jumping. It’s easy to forget that not so long ago, Vitali was considered the much weaker of the two and because they too were shocked by the Sanders loss, and are unable to defend the obvious criticism of the knockout, they’ve decided to take the “okay, yeah, Wlad leaves some questions, but look at Vitali” attitude. They now act as though Vitali was the favorite from the get go. This is false. The new found support of Vitali is based on his fight with Lennox Lewis. A fight that he lost. Vitali is riding high on the fact that he beat Lennox four out of six rounds before his unreliable skin tissue gave in. Lennox did not look good in this fight, and an argument can be made that Vitali would have won, but it takes more than four rounds to win a heavyweight belt and Lennox began tagging the large Klitschko with huge uppercuts that slowed down his vigorous early showing.
Being knocked out is not new to boxing and it has happened to other fighters that have gone on to have extensive, successful careers. Joe Louis was knocked out by Max Schmelling. I do not however, recall Louis never retired from a bout, because he ran out of steam. A lot of fighters run out of gas; the true champions reach down deep and find the energy to win, or at least finish the fight. Wladimir retired in the 11th round against a journeyman heavyweight named Ross Purity. Vitali Klitschko quit to injury in the 10th round against the relatively light hitting Chris Byrd. To me, this is not the thing that legends are made of. I don’t think the open ended question regarding the Klitschko’s is singularly the quality of their chins. Until further scrutiny, their hearts may be more of a question than anything else.
Comparing either of these two boxers to any of the legends that earned their reputations, not by speculation, or unearned praise, but by actually beating the best fighters of their generation seems rather inappropriate. If Muhammad Ali were actively fighting I imagine he might have written a poem something like this:
One is six foot six, the other six foot eight,
if this were basketball, then I’m sure they’d both be great.
But boxing is the sport, and hight don’t matter,
So the bigger they are, well the harder that they splatter.
Sure, they’re both huge and very muscle bound,
But it won’t be a push up they’re doing…
When they’re lying on the ground.
I’ve heard they are both doctors, and that is just fine,
It ain’t no coincidence, that so was “Frankenstein”!
They both have quit in fights, because neither could take the pain,
If they fought in my generation, they’d both be cab drivers in the Ukraine.
If Purity, Byrd, Lewis & Sanders could defeat them….
Never mind “The Greatest”, I think that Layla could have beat them!!!
The writer welcomes your comments and opinions.