Boycott Klitschko

[gregor]

It's hilarious to me at least how people bitch and whine and ask, "When will there be another Tyson or Holyfield or Ali?" in the mainstream media, when these winos don't realize we have had (more or less) a dominate heavyweight champion for the passed decade who is approaching the world record for title defenses.

Number of defences counts when talking about legacy, all time rankings, etc. But it does not help at all when you watch a boring fight - boxing fans just want to see a good fight and someone who brings some excitement to the ring. And here Wlad fails big time.

Part of the problem is lack of decent opponents, but it is not all. When Tyson outclassed an opponent, he destroyed him in a couple of rounds in devastating fashion (I mean usually, don't want to split hairs over guys like Bonecrusher Smith etc.). Wlad fights safety-first even against old cruisers, and carries them as long as possible (to give German TV enough time for advertisements).

[Tony1244]

Yeah, I'm going to boycott the HW champion for winning too easily.

Now if he was defending against Briggs or Welliver, that would be a reason for a boycott but if he defends against Jennings and Fury this year I can't complain, even though I'd like him to be more active.

Ok, Wlad vs Glaskov as a fight is boycottable.

[SteveO]

As of today, Wladimir's mandatory challengers are:
WBO = Tyson Fury
IBF = Vyacheslav Glazkov
WBA = Winner of the forthcoming Ruslan Chagaev-Lucas Browne contest.
He has to fight these guys or lose the respective belt. Of course, he is entitled to voluntary defenses in between so a Deontay Wilder unification fight is not out of the question.
Looks like Wlad's future bouts are pretty much sorted.

[caldo2025]

I don't care how many wins or records Klitschko has, he's been HORRIBLE for the sport and especially the heavyweight division. He and his brother won their belts and brought the whole heavyweight division into Siberia figuratively. Neither brother tried to appeal to the American boxing fans. Instead, they prefer to fight bums in Germany at times of the day Westerners don't watch boxing. Heck, most of Klitschko's fights the last 5 years weren't televised in the US. Imagine that? Heavyweight Champion of the World not even available to the capital building of boxing, the US.

He's a SUPER fighter, I respect his skill in the ring. But i'm a fan of BOXING first and foremost and promoters should study the career choices of our heavyweight champion and use it as a study guide on "what not to do". Klitschko has had one version of the heavyweight championship belts since 2000. He's never even sniffed a PPV event and hasn't fought in the United States for SEVEN YEARS. Maybe it's his dumb promotion company, K2 Promotions..a bunch of misfits in that group. Why GGG signed with them is beyond me. Last month, K2 Promotions got a huge fight for GGG in Monaco in front of 800 fans. 800 FANS.

Klit will never measure up to the heavyweight greats in my generation. Tyson, Lewis, Holyfield, Bowe, Holmes...these guys brought the world great fights and memories. The only fight I can remember from Klit was when Corey Sanders knocked his goofy ass out early. Can't remember anything else the guys done. I back the boycott.

[Tony1244]

I don't care how many wins or records Klitschko has, he's been HORRIBLE for the sport and especially the heavyweight division. He and his brother won their belts and brought the whole heavyweight division into Siberia figuratively. Neither brother tried to appeal to the American boxing fans. Instead, they prefer to fight bums in Germany at times of the day Westerners don't watch boxing. Heck, most of Klitschko's fights the last 5 years weren't televised in the US. Imagine that? Heavyweight Champion of the World not even available to the capital building of boxing, the US.

He's a SUPER fighter, I respect his skill in the ring. But i'm a fan of BOXING first and foremost and promoters should study the career choices of our heavyweight champion and use it as a study guide on "what not to do". Klitschko has had one version of the heavyweight championship belts since 2000. He's never even sniffed a PPV event and hasn't fought in the United States for SEVEN YEARS. Maybe it's his dumb promotion company, K2 Promotions..a bunch of misfits in that group. Why GGG signed with them is beyond me. Last month, K2 Promotions got a huge fight for GGG in Monaco in front of 800 fans. 800 FANS.

Klit will never measure up to the heavyweight greats in my generation. Tyson, Lewis, Holyfield, Bowe, Holmes...these guys brought the world great fights and memories. The only fight I can remember from Klit was when Corey Sanders knocked his goofy ass out early. Can't remember anything else the guys done. I back the boycott.

I've always found The Klitschko Question to be quite interesting. If someone would have told me in 1980 that two Ukrainian brothers would dominate the Heavyweight division, I would have erroneously predicted that they'd be HUGE NAMES in the USA. Of course they are not. What isn't clear is whether this is their fault or the fault of America's? Perhaps a bit of both.

Another thread asks if boxing is dying. It isn't dying but when I was a young dude in say 1980, most young girls I knew, knew who Jerry Quarry was. Now most young women don't even know who the Klitschkos are! I find this depressing. it's also surprising because Ivan Drago (the fictional Russian fighter who fought Rocky) might be a more recognizable name.

[kaiserbill]

I don't care how many wins or records Klitschko has, he's been HORRIBLE for the sport and especially the heavyweight division. He and his brother won their belts and brought the whole heavyweight division into Siberia figuratively. Neither brother tried to appeal to the American boxing fans. Instead, they prefer to fight bums in Germany at times of the day Westerners don't watch boxing. Heck, most of Klitschko's fights the last 5 years weren't televised in the US. Imagine that? Heavyweight Champion of the World not even available to the capital building of boxing, the US.

He's a SUPER fighter, I respect his skill in the ring. But i'm a fan of BOXING first and foremost and promoters should study the career choices of our heavyweight champion and use it as a study guide on "what not to do". Klitschko has had one version of the heavyweight championship belts since 2000. He's never even sniffed a PPV event and hasn't fought in the United States for SEVEN YEARS. Maybe it's his dumb promotion company, K2 Promotions..a bunch of misfits in that group. Why GGG signed with them is beyond me. Last month, K2 Promotions got a huge fight for GGG in Monaco in front of 800 fans. 800 FANS.

Klit will never measure up to the heavyweight greats in my generation. Tyson, Lewis, Holyfield, Bowe, Holmes...these guys brought the world great fights and memories. The only fight I can remember from Klit was when Corey Sanders knocked his goofy ass out early. Can't remember anything else the guys done. I back the boycott.

1. When you say "Westerners", you really mean Americans, don't you? Because, you know, when Wlad fights in Germany/Europe....
2. It appears that your main beef is that he is not American.
3. Your secondary beef, after Wlad having the temerity of not being American, seems to be that he doesn't fight all his fights in the USA?

Here are some points I'd like to make:

Including his upcoming fight against Bryant, he will have fought 12 fights in the US.
I'd have thought he's probably fought in more different countries than Tyson, Holmes, Holyfield and Bowe combined.
So I checked: He's fought in Germany, USA, Russia, Switzerland, Britain, Hungary, Ukraine, Austria....
So he fights the majority in his adopted homeland....the shock and horror of it all.

Bowe fought every single one of his 44 fights, except his last payday before retiring, in one single country.
Holyfield, with the exception of a couple early on, fought every single one of his fights when he was competitive in one single country. He only broadened his horizons slightly, due to payday reasons, at the grand old age of 45, after over 50 fights.
Holmes? 2 out of 78.
Tyson is 5 out of 56.

And there you have it.

There is a big world out there, with many people in it.

World Heavyweight Champion.

[SteveO]

World Heavyweight Champion.

Exactly. Wlad is the WORLD heavyweight champion, not the 'AMERICA-WORLD' heavyweight champion.

[HomicideHenry]

I wonder if Jim Jeffries, John L. Sullivan, and alot of the old-timers got the same criticisms that Klitschko receives. It was "too easy" some nights for those men... was it because they were great? Because the division stank? Both? I think Klitschko is certainly in a better era than Lennox Lewis was apart of (when he was champion). By how much? That's another matter. But I would certainly think that Fury, Haye, Wilder, Stiverne, etc. are better than likes of Ruiz and Byrd and old Holyfield that were plaguing the Lewis era. I can't imagine a Roy Jones winning a version of the title in this era--- the smallest of challengers are still far larger than he was and better than Ruiz was.

Klitschko, as of now, is in that Joe Louis mold (or Larry Holmes) where all the good contenders are defeated, and the mandatories are just too easy. It isn't his fault--- people look at him with the same disdain as they did for Holmes, if not more so and I think alot of it stems from the fact he isn't American or British. Other reasons that hold him back is Klitschko is a "boxingologist" like Lewis and he seldom let's go--- but when he does, there is no one out there to stand up to his power. For me personally, he may very well be a top 10 heavyweight of all time as it is.

It's very hard for me to imagine (even some of my heroes) facing a man who is that big, with that much ability. Alot of past greats may of fought men just as skilled (or better), men just as tall (but not as heavy), men just as heavy (but not as fit), etc etc etc. None of them ever faced a man who was a combination of all those things. The only men from the past, in my view, who could of possibly beaten him were Jeffries or Dempsey or Foreman. Everyone else just didn't have the ferocity, power, toughness and conditioning to do it.

[kaiserbill]

Good post HomicideHenry.

Although I try not to compare champions from different eras, there is much food for thought in that post.

[gregor]

World Heavyweight Champion.

Exactly. Wlad is the WORLD heavyweight champion, not the 'AMERICA-WORLD' heavyweight champion.

True. But he is also BORING champion. I am not actively boycotting him, I just can't get interested in watching another snoozefest. And this has nothing to do with his nationality or timezone he fights in (which BTW happens to be also my timezone).

And pls, do not compare Wlad to Holmes (in terms of boredom). Rewatch Holmes-Norton and you will find more action than in ten Wlad defences.