by James Slater – Last week, in an article written about how IBF and WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko has been sparring with as many as seven different sparring partners in preparation for this coming Saturday’s big fight with the unbeaten Ruslan Chagaev, fans understandably wanted to know the names of the boxers Klitschko has been working with. We knew “Dr Steel Hammer” was obviously using southpaw fighters, as Chagaev is a lefty. But which ones?
Well, in a news bit that has appeared on The Times’ boxing blog, it has been revealed that the 6’7″ giant has been polishing his tools this week with middleweight prospect Andy Lee – even though the Irishman is over eighty pounds the lighter man.
Emanuel Steward-trained like Klitschko, Lee has sparred with Waldimir before, and the Hall of Fame trainer says the two get stuck in when they spar, despite the size difference.
“They have sparred together before,” Steward said. “Wladimir likes to use Andy in the last week because of the speed. Andy is 6’2” so he is actually taller than Chagaev. He’s a natural southpaw and he’s much quicker than Chagaev.
“It is pretty competitive when they get in the ring. Wladimir doesn’t open up completely but they have pretty good workouts.”
It certainly would be interesting to see some footage of the two working together, but that’s unlikely to happen, as both Klitschko brothers operate strict and tight rules of privacy most of the time when they’re in training.
It sounds as though Wladimir will be looking to use speed to defeat Chagaev on Saturday, and not just use his size and weight advantages. If this is the case we could be in for a good, reasonably sprightly paced fight. We can definitely expect a wholly different fight from the one we would have had had original foe David Haye been in the opposite corner, but if both Klitschko and Chagaev give us their best effort and are not in any way negative, we could wind up getting a better fight than we would have done.
Instead of a short, explosive affair, Saturday night may now bring us a top quality and highly engrossing chess match. Both men are clever boxers with good jabs, and by the looks of things both men are in great physical shape. This will hopefully mean we will have no last-minute cancellation of this bout the way we had one when Chagaev last attempted to box!
The once-beaten Lee also appears on the card, as he takes on Olegs Fedotivs of Latvia. Due to the work he’s been getting, Lee is sure to be in tip top shape himself.