Will Any Klitschko Do? A Tale Of Boxing’s Brotherly Bandwagons

21.04.06 – By Lee Hayes: Let me start by stating that I do not hate Vitali or Wladimir Klitschko. They are simply boxers, and sportsmen in a sport I love. I do not know them personally, only of them. This article is not so much about them as it is a commentary about boxing fans and their fleeting loyalty and admiration. The Klitschko’s simply pose as the best modern example, because they are brothers, and have been juxtaposed against one another, usually willingly. The fact is they used to do commercials for HBO standing back to back taking advantage of the general populations confusion as to whom was whom. “Which one’s Wladimir? Which one’s Vitali?” Many of you have probably seen the ad I am referring to.

Last month I wrote an article regarding the way boxing fans often lose their loyalty to an undefeated fighter simply for suffering a loss.

(It can be found here: link) – The article was about no fighters in particular, but it’s point was that sometimes, boxing fans can be flighty, and nobody likes to cheer for a perineal loser. This time, I would like to address the topic of bandwagon jumping in the sport.

The leap of favoritism between boxing’s recent most famous siblings has no real parallel in the sport. Klitschko supporters have jumped bandwagon to bandwagon, picking and choosing which brother is the better more talented of the two ever since the two giant Ukrainians were fighting in the amateurs. Vitali was the Olympic hopeful, while Wladimir seemed a little too young. That is until Vitali Klitschko embarrassed himself and his fans by failing a substance abuse test for anabolic steroids, by putting up a positive result for Nandrolone. Wladimir was able to take his spot in the super heavyweight division, and it gave him an opportunity to shine in the spotlight. He took every advantage of it and impressed many during the Atlanta summer games in 1996, winning the super heavyweight gold medal. Wladimir became the more talented brother.

Wlad kept the spotlight. In fact, even though Vitali remained undefeated through twenty seven professional outings, Wlad had the majority of the focus of attention. He was better looking, more approachable and more athletic all around. Vitali would be the wind beneath his wings. For now.

That all changed on December 5th, 1998, when Wladimir Klitschko was stopped by veteran journeyman Ross Puritty. Puritty was always a gritty pro, giving just enough to test talented hopefuls in the division, but never being good enough to actually pull off the win. In fact, Ross had already lost soundly to Kirk Johnson, Hasim Rahman, Michael Grant, Corrie Sanders, Larry Donald and Chris Byrd – as well as several lesser fighters- before pressuring Wladimir in to his first loss as a pro. The media was brutal on young Wlad. Suddenly interest grew in Wladimir’s still undefeated brother Vitali. Especially amongst the fans. The bandwagon was in full flight.

Vitali Klitschko seemed to be a 6’7 power punching machine. It was pretty much agreed that he was far more robotic than Wladimir, and stood way too straight up, in the stereotypical Eastern European style of old. But with a record of 27-0 (27), none of that seemed to matter. If your opponent can’t make it out of the first round, it doesn’t matter where you hold your head. Vitali was the man. The Klitschko fans all agreed. Wladimir was talented but flawed. Vitali was more sturdy and strong. Or was he?

That whole picnic came to a crashing halt on April 1st, 2000 when Vitali Klitschko’s opponent, the still dangerous Canadian bomber, Donovan “Razor” Ruddock, pulled out of his fight with Vitali due to a contracting a venereal disease, making him medically unfit to fight. Klitschko’s management made an offer for a last minute replacement to several high profile American heavyweights, but nobody seemed interested. Hardly surprising, considering fighting an undefeated power punching giant on ten days notice doesn’t seem like a wise career move for a boxer. That is, until Chris Byrd gladly answered the call and agreed to fly to Germany to face off with Vitali in his adopted boxing home. The result would be the second Klitschko surrender in two years, and the third jump of the talented brothers bandwagon for most of their fans. It wouldn’t be the last. Klitschko’s camp would claim a shoulder injury, or hand injury depending on what source gave you the information. Although Vitali himself claimed that he was simply unable to “solve the southpaw style” after quitting ahead on all score cards against the under sized Byrd. We’ll never know what was really going through his mind at the time, but one thing is for sure. The sting of the surrender damaged Klitschko fans for years to come. The retribution from Boxing media and fans was harsh and in many cases over board. In fact, both HBO commentator and resident grumpy old man, Larry Merchant, as well as freelance boxing writer Michael Katz nearly simultaneously began referring to the brothers as “Chicken Kiev”. An unfair and borderline derogatory epitaph not only to the Klitschko’s but also to their fan base in the Ukraine. Klitschko fans were not sure exactly how to react. Who was better? Who should they tout as the future champion? Both?

Wladimir had already began rebuilding his career by this point in time, and he seemed back on track as a sure shot for a title at some point in his career. Some were even saying he could possibly challenge Lennox Lewis or Mike Tyson. He had re-established himself with solid wins over credible opponents such as Alex Schultz and Monte Barrett, as well as a few trial horses. Sure, it seemed safe to hop back aboard the younger Klitschko’s fan club again. Wlad had simply screwed up and “gassed” out in the Puritty fight. Suddenly Puritty’s skills and will became legendary in order to cover up the major gaffe. It seemed plausible, since Wlad seemed relatively unfazed in his subsequent fights. He didn’t appear to have any stamina problems, and Vitali needed some time to “heal” from his injuries, if he indeed had any. Certainly the repetitive abandonment he faced in the amateurs and again after his loss to the always classy Chris Byrd injured his pride and self image, if nothing else. Who wouldn’t be hurt?

Wlad capped off his emergence as the “new” (again) superior Klitschko brother. “Sturdy” and “strong” went out, and “flexible” and “talented” were back in. Vitali was practically forgotten. Ring Magazine, the “bible” of boxing did a review of all heavyweights at around the time Wladimir had teed off on over the hill Ray Mercer, and in it, they rated Wladimir as a solid “A”, while Vitali -who had gone right back to knocking out his opponents on a regular basis- was demoted all the way down to a D-. Much like the “chicken Kiev” comment, that was over kill. Vitali’s stock surely should have dropped, but he was never less than a “C+”, even in his worst moments. Wladimir remained the Klitschko fans favorite brother for the longest reign of the boxing big brothers careers during this time period. There was talk that he might be the only heavyweight on the horizon capable of giving Lennox Lewis a boxing lesson. I for one happened to think at the time that he would be very competitive with Lewis. Wladimir had impressed me quite a bit since his loss to Puritty, and in my opinion, had vastly redeemed himself, even if Chris Byrd was his only really significant win. Chris Byrd was no easy task, and Wlad had beaten him rather thoroughly. The Klitschko fans couldn’t have been happier.

Then a real anomaly in the story took place. Quietly, Vitali continued to muster up win after win, often in the shadow of the more popular Wlad’s fights. He received little to no media attention, unless it was because he was forced in to the picture for the duel brother angle. More importantly, he was back to doing what he did best. Dominating inferior opposition in very devastating manner. He also began to make a reputation for stopping fighters that had never been KO’d before, forging his own popularity amongst Klitschko fans. For the first time, there seemed to be a slight debate about which Klitschko may be better. Very slight, as Wlad was still the clear favorite then. But once the brothers began doing more and more of the international media scene, and started revealing their somewhat circus sideshow ambitions of being the first brothers to hold heavyweight titles at the same time, their recognition began to sore in the boxing community. For the first time, they were both being considered contenders, and not just among the hard core Klitschko fans that had been bobbing and weaving between them like Willie Pep dodging punches. The ride wouldn’t last long. The bandwagon would be once again rolling in full tilt with members of the fan groups quickly jumping and clinging often in confusion as to who to cling to. On a side note, neither Klitschko seemed at all interested in this behavior and have always maintained that they are both excellent fighters. They always seemed to want to share the glory and never seemed happy when their legion of supporters wavered at the slightest sign of trouble. (I again reference the article I posted at the beginning of this story to see exactly what my opinion is on fans that abandon their heros with such utter ambivalent regard).

My opinion at the time was that I really didn’t care which one of them was better. I was interested in seeing both of their chins and hearts tested against the best heavyweights in the division. Wlad seemed to have incredible combinations during some of his fights, particularly his bout with Ray Mercer. Combinations I had never seen a man that size pull off. Vitali seemed to have a hammer of a right hand, and decent jab. But until they started stepping up to fight other top opponents besides Chris Byrd, the smallest possible guy available with the lightest punch, I was not going to be easily impressed.

HBO had been building up Wlad in a hope that they could cash in huge with a potential fight with Lennox. Indeed, had he remained undefeated for only a few more fights, the fight definitely would have come off. Unfortunately a couple of things got in the way. They were all at the end of semi-retired golfer/boxer Corrie Sanders left hands. Now, I often downplay the abilities of Sanders, because of his physique and inactivity going in to the fight with Wlad. However, I’ll freely admit that he was a very good puncher with a deceptively fast left hand. One that Wlad never saw coming. But considering that Sanders was in his prime when he lost a slug out with current WBC heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman, it hardly seems reasonable to completely excuse Klitschko’s terrible showing with the much older version of Sanders that blew him out of the water in two rounds on that night.

It didn’t take long for the wagons to be a movin’ again. You could have made a spaghetti western with all of this stage coach hopping. Wladimir may as well have fell off the planet as far as his fans were concerned. They had no excuse. No stamina issue. No reason to offer in the quality of Wlad’s opponent. (Corrie was no Tyson, Lewis or Holyfield by any means). Or did they? Eventually, they would simply raise Sanders to George Foreman status as far as his punching ability, neglecting the fact that 99% of them had never even heard of the talented South African south paw until after he dismantled Klitschko that night in Hannover. It seemed to finally be over. The debate was once and for all done. Vitali Klitschko was the REAL threat to the division. Wlad simply had “no confidence”.

In a way, that almost sounded reasonable. Many fighters would have quit after the verbal beatings that Vitali had received in most press. He really had established himself far more than his D-, and in some cases worse, ratings by the “experts”. He didn’t look great, but he looked impressive because of the destructive nature of some of his KO’s. He wasn’t fancy or mobile like Wlad had been, and he certainly reminded nobody of Muhammad Ali with his footwork, but, he was sturdy, and in many ways, had a much more serious killer instinct than Wlad ever did. Indeed, as it seemed that the younger Klitschko was often more concerned with how rippled his muscles were, rather than how well he could parry his opponents punches. Still, he was relatively untested, and I as a boxing purist, was not willing to just consider him some boxing god without further proof. The proof was good enough for those hopping back and forth like leap frogs however, and the Klitschko fans were ecstatic when the found out that Kirk Johnson had pulled out of his scheduled June 21st, 2001 fight with Lennox Lewis, and for some bizarre reason, Lewis thought little enough of Vitali to take him as an short term replacement. Even if Lewis always had a huge confidence about him, I had to wonder what he was thinking taking on a puncher of Vitali’s size without properly preparing for that style in training. “Kirk Johnson and Vitali Klitschko are nothing alike” I thought, but then again…”what about the fight with Byrd?” Lewis will tear him to shreds. The Lennox Lewis that fought Mike Tyson was in superb shape. He moved well and his reflexes were brilliant. Tyson was not much of a challenge, but surely this towering Ukrainian would be no match for Lennox. Hell, Vitali wouldn’t really even have that much of a size advantage over him. And Lewis should be able to easily pressure him far more than Chris was ever able to do. I figured that the Klitschko fans had placed all their eggs in the wrong basket. It was starting to be apparent that putting too much faith in either of these cats to become all-time greats, or even all-time “goods” was far fetched.

Then there was the fight. And what a fight. It was the best heavyweight war I had seen since Riddick Bowe lifted Evander Holyfield’s unified heavyweight title in the first bout of their epic trilogy. It was incredibly dramatic, with Klitschko landing more flush punches on Lewis than any other heavyweight had since Ray Mercer. Neither Oliver McCall or Hasim Rahman were landing with any consistency before stopping Lewis with single blows. Vitali had given him all he could handle that night. Luckily Lewis’s pedigree and all-time skills and heart pulled him through in a squeaker. It left boxing fans longing for more, and me happy to see Lewis choose to retire, rather than lose to an opponent that probably wouldn’t have lasted two rounds with him in his prime. None of that mattered though. I was thankful that Vitali had put up a great fight, and that Lennox went out on a thriller. The eldest Klitschko seemed to have taken advantage of the new fans he was gifted by his massive show of heart in the fight. Rightfully so, even though I believe he was probably about to get knocked out in the following rounds and that he had suffered one of the goriest cuts in recent memory in the ring, full props for showing up ready and willing to trade with a legend. It wasn’t his fault that Lewis was far past his prime and the fight had less meaning than if he had stepped up three years earlier against top opposition. Vitlai had proven that he was sure no D- fighter, and that he had learned his lesson from quitting against Chris Byrd. Klitschko fans seemed ready to seat belt themselves to their favorite. Especially considering the exclamation put on Wlad’s career by Sanders. It was finally decided and over.

Or was it?

Vitali would go on to have a few meaningless wallet padding defenses against some non-hopefuls and a “revenge” match against the man who had completely humiliated his brother, Corrie Sanders. Both Klitschko’s always stood up for each other and eagerly took the responsibility of fighting their own revenge bouts from each other in order to get back at their conquerors through out their careers and Sanders would be no exception. It seemed as if Sanders didn’t even take the fight seriously. Barely throwing any punches after the second round, and all and all embarrassing himself and wasting fight fans hard earned Pay Per View dollars. But again, like the accelerated age of Lewis when Vitali finally stepped up to fight him, this wasn’t Vitali’s fault either. He didn’t train Corrie Sanders. He didn’t force feed him. That was Corrie’s responsibility, and Vitali did his job, painting the over weight golfer with massive amounts of punishment. Making him look like a human punching bag. During Vitali’s “reign” as WBC and Ring heavyweight champion, Wladimir would go up and down like a yo-yo with his success/failure patterns, so quickly that even the band wagon bandits couldn’t keep up, and half of them usually had no idea what to think about Wlad. The diehard’s still quietly supported him, but the mass Klitschko fans preferred to play it safe, often avoiding the topic all together. A good portion started speaking out “Vitali is the better fighter. Wlad has much better skills, but Vitali is more suited for boxing.” Or “Wlad is too nice. Vitali likes knocking guys out”. I’d heard it all. Wlad had his built in excuse for losing, because he was too friendly (although I think Ray Mercer might disagree there), and Vitali was “sturdy” because he was the new Ukrainian ice cream flavor of the day. Because he was actually winning all of his fights.

Now, I admit that Klitschko fans have not had it easy, because they started really becoming boisterous about how great Vitali really was. How his size would have troubled any heavyweight in history etc. But I kept saying “I want to see him fight Hasim Rahman. Rock would knock him right out.” Those that frequented East Side Boxing were very familiar with my chants that Vitali should face Hasim. I felt the style match up suited Rahman very well. The Klitschko fans, who had decided Vitali was their “man”, talked a great game. How Vitali would easily destroy Rahman. It was a heated debate. We all eagerly awaited the fight. Unfortunately for his supporters, Vitali let them all down, over and over and over again. Setting dates and signing to fight only to pull out at the last moment because of a new training injury or excuse. With no string of great wins by Wladimir to give them an out and a wagon to hop, they didn’t know what to do or say. In a way, I felt sorry for them, knowing the premise of this article for years. In a way, I hoped that an undiscovered “third brother” might show up in some small village in the Ukraine in order to give them an out. This continued for almost a year, until the final blow to Klitschko’s fan base. Not only did Vitali pull out of his final fight date with Hasim “The Rock” Rahman, but he did so on such short notice, that many honorable European Klitschko fans, who had purchased plane tickets and accommodations, were completely left out to pay for his choice. Losing thousands of dollars and a lot of respect, many of those fans soured on the Klitschko’s all together, abandoning the debate as to which brother was better. I couldn’t blame them.

The end?

Not quite. By hiring Shelley Finkel to represent his “interests”, Wladimir Klitschko picked up an PR pitbull, with no mercy when it comes to promoting his property. Sure enough, Finkel got right on top of accusing Chris Byrd of “ducking” Wladimir. Which was probably a surprise to Byrd, since he was not even in the country at the time, he was vacationing with his lovely wife and children, getting a well earned rest after his war with Jameel “Big Time” McCline. That didn’t stop the attacks, and the Klitschko fans that had tucked their tails and ran after Vitali disappointed them so badly, finally had one last wagon to cling to. It was desperate, and sort of sad, but by tarnishing the respectable -if not always exciting- name of Byrd, Finkel managed to get Wladimir’s name in all the headlines again. Since many of both brothers fans had developed a sort of hatred towards Byrd, ever since he forced Vitali to quit in their match, it was a natural. They began calling Byrd a “coward” and seemed more pumped to tout Wladimir as the once again “Savior” of the division. Only Andrew Golota had been resurrected this many times in recent memory. My problem at the time was that Wlad had done nothing since being beaten by Sanders to deserve it. He barely got past DaVarryl Williamson, although I do not entirely blame Wlad for that fight, since Williamson has since proved that he is just not a talented fighter, and that his goal against top notched opponents is merely to stink the joint to pieces. But Klitschko also “gassed” again against relative journeyman/pseudo contender Lamon Brewster. In one of the most bizarre heavyweight moments in years. Byrd eventually would say that he wouldn’t fight Wlad until he had earned his title shot, and once Wlad did by impressively beating the dangerous punching Sam Peter, Byrd gave him his shot as promised.

So with only one impressive fight under his belt in nearly five years, and the absence of the other brothers bandwagon as the “go to guy”, Wladimir has once again become the “Savior” of the heavyweights. Amongst the Klitschko fans, that is. Boxing fans in general have not been so easy to soften up to Wlad. They’ve seen this entire flip flop episode for over a decade. It’s a “wait and see” attitude amongst many. But I’ll say this on the record. I have always liked Wladimir Klitschko’s offensive capabilities. I think he’s unlike any other heavyweight I’ve ever seen in that regard, and I respect his skills on offense very much. He’s unique if nothing else. But with one question still remains for the Klitschko’s fans;

With no brother left to fall back on, and Chris Byrd a potentially difficult opponent in their rematch this Saturday, what are you going to do if your man implodes again? Who will you fall to? What is your “plan C”?

The bandwagon rides are over. It’s do, or die. Everything is at stake in this fight, and Klitschko fans are feeling the heat as they get more and more emotional while the fight nears. Should Wladimir win this fight, even unimpressively, the cries will no doubt be “it was always you Wlad!!!” But I’ve been watching for some time, and I know better.

I guess we’ll all just have to wait and see. I for one hope for an incredibly entertaining fight.

This writer welcomes your productive comments and suggestions: