Honest Klitschko: It’s either too early for Joshua - or too late for me

[Ruthless-RKO]

Veteran Wladimir Klitschko has been pretty realistic regarding his chances of dethroning solid heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on the back of the Ukrainian's enforced 17-month absence from the ring.

The soon-to-be 41 year-old will head to Wembley Stadium on April 29 without a win in two years after losing his position as the king of the top division against Tyson Fury in Dusseldorf at the back end of 2015.

During the build-up, Klitschko has outlined his ‘obsession’ with winning back the titles but knows the man in front of him will not be a pushover after going through his career so far with a 100% KO ratio.

“I’m fighting a man that I was, is and will be a fan of since I watched Anthony Joshua win his Olympic Gold Medal in 2012. He was my sparring partner in 2014 when I trained for Kubrat Pulev,” pointed out Klitschko.

“I believe this man has a lot of skills, maybe yes, maybe not he will be the biggest star in boxing. I know there are plans to fight Wilder after me, it’s good to be young and ambitions, but I believe this fight has a lot of questions. Is it too early for him, too late for me?”

“All those questions will be answered on April 29, do I still got it or is it too late?”

“I’m looking forward to his challenge, I have my goal to become three-time world champion and I’m obsessed with it,” he added.

‘Dr. Steelhammer’ could be staring at the end of his career should Joshua maintain his perfect record of stoppages as a rematch with Fury has now collapsed due to the Briton taking an extended break from boxing.

[davie]

I suspect too late for Wlad but it could be either, both or neither to be fair.

We'll know better come fight night

[greg]

..Wlad is smart praising his opponents..the more you do so, the more significant is your win..answering to the question above, I'll go with "neither"..

[rd350lc]

I have a feeling wlad will win or at least be winning comfortabley if he gets caught and loses .

is that not sitting on the fence ?

[Oiky]

Too late for wlad

[gilgamesh]

I'm thinking too late for Wlad

[montrealsuper]

I have never seen two boxers so friendly before a super fight - WK has called AJ his "little brother" - this has to be the kindest friendliest super fight ever - How do you fight a guy you really really like and respect? This is turning out to be a very weird odd strange fight - Could end up being as passive and unviolent as WK vs Fury or perhaps even worse !! lol

[SaadOffTheDeck]

I don't think wlad would have ever beat the Joshua he's about to fight. That being said, 18 months removed from the worst title fight in heavyweight history, it's hard to think wlads still in his 'prime'. Then again, who the hell knows when that was? He might be the same fighter, fury just took away his biggest weapon; holding.

[TheGingerBomber]

I rate AJ no doubt but if Wlad can roll back the clock a few years he gives him trouble.

I feel like people are either too dismissive of Klitschko or unconvinced on AJ, which is fine, it's your opinion. I see it as down the middle, extremely close. I can't wait.

I'll go on record and say at first I thought Wlad may have too much for him in terms of basics, you know, jab and hold, eventually sneaking in a big right hand to KO him, but I started to change my mind last week whilst watching the Whyte fight again.

I'd expect him to rough up Wlad to the body even if he tries to hold, for the most part I see it as a distance bombs away fight.

[Kalan]

I have never seen two boxers so friendly before a super fight - WK has called AJ his "little brother" - this has to be the kindest friendliest super fight ever - How do you fight a guy you really really like and respect? This is turning out to be a very weird odd strange fight - Could end up being as passive and unviolent as WK vs Fury or perhaps even worse !! lol

You don't understand Boxing.. In the ring you fight guys you like and respect.. The promoters hate that and stage artificial animosities, because what they think works for a massive gates is fighters who hate each other.. So you had Tyson building up the biggest Heavyweight PPVs ever with his disparaging remarks about Holyfield and Lewis, "I'll eat your children" ... Don't be so naive. You don't hate the guys you fight. It's business.

Remember during the Mayweather-De La Hoya build up on 24/7 when Mayweather said.. "It doesn't work to have 2 good guys.. I have to take the bad guy role." ... I think that phoniness turns a lot of people off.. Then you get a super tame fight like Mayweather-Pacquiao, which was supposed to be the biggest fight in the history of Boxing.. More people watched it than any other fight in history and it turned people off of PPV until this very day.

A spectacular fight just happens.. or a tame sparring match happens.. I thought the 1st Toney-McCallum fight was the hardest contested Middleweight Title Fight I ever watched.. Salvador Sanchez vs Ruben Castillo was one of the best fights I've even seen.. Duran-De Jesus III was a terrific fight as was the first Leonard-Duran fight.. The 2nd Leonard-Duran fight was the pits.. Ali-Evangelista was the pits.. Byrd-Williamson sucked.. You just don't know.

Whether you like or hate somebody you still want to win very badly.. You need to be successful to get rich.. If you knock your friend stiff you're getting closer so you do your best.. The Patterson-Johansson fights were tremendous commercial successes.. The fighters liked each other.. Holmes and Berbick hated each other to the point they wanted to kill each other.. Nobody cared how they felt and it wasn't a particularly great fight.

[montrealsuper]

Floyd and his band of bandits cheated Pacquiao - Floyd boxed only to last 12 and NOT to win decisively - Pac tried to fight but Floyd held and ran and spoiled the fight - Floyd knew the judges were in AHs pocket - that's why fans dont trust boxing now: because of Floyd's fixery - Having tension and grudge in a fight helps to sell it a wider audience - two good guys fighting friends is a ticket selling killer - if WK and AJ had bad words for each other and dislike the fight would sell even greater far greater - If Ali had the personality of Chris Byrd or Vernon Forrest he would have sold far far FAR LESS -

[Counter-puncher]

Floyd boxed only to last 12 and NOT to win decisively - Pac tried to fight

[montrealsuper]

You cant fight a chicken who wants to run and pitter patter to the finish line where he knows his sugar daddy has the judges bought

[BitPlayer]

Pac tried to fight

Tried, failed and lost.

You cant fight a chicken who wants to run and pitter patter to the finish line where he knows his sugar daddy has the judges bought

[montrealsuper]

Rigged punchstats, rigged judges, rigged tv broadcasters. Rigged NV commission. Rigged NV doctors. Floyd caught doing illegal IV day before fight - gets covered up for a month. Pacquiao requests to use LEGAL painkiller for his shoulder the day of fight - NV commission denies Pacquaio.

One of the most obvious high profile fixes of all time.

The Vegas syndicate guy even did the interview weeks before the fight saying that Vegas needed Floyd to win - if Pacquiao won they would have lost a FORTUNE. Documented Fact.

'Al Haymon can manipulate (fix) anything. What Al Haymon wants Al Haymon gets." - Paulie Malignaggi

[MachoTime]

If Wlad had a chin like Hopkins or Toney I would give him a good chance against Joshua.

[BitPlayer]

Rigged punchstats, rigged judges, rigged tv broadcasters. Rigged NV commission. Rigged NV doctors. Floyd caught doing illegal IV day before fight - gets covered up for a month. Pacquiao requests to use LEGAL painkiller for his shoulder the day of fight - NV commission denies Pacquaio.

One of the most obvious high profile fixes of all time.

The Vegas syndicate guy even did the interview weeks before the fight saying that Vegas needed Floyd to win - if Pacquiao won they would have lost a FORTUNE. Documented Fact.

'Al Haymon can manipulate (fix) anything. What Al Haymon wants Al Haymon gets." - Paulie Malignaggi

It's hilarious you chose to quote a Paulie Malignaggu. He predicted Mayweather would beat Pacquiao easilly, thought Pacquiao looked "pitiful" while getting "schooled" by Mayweather, and was quite happy about that because he dislikes Pacquiao for being a massive PED user.

http://www.newsday.com/sports/boxing/ma ... 1.10254657
http://www.badlefthook.com/2015/5/3/853 ... erformance
http://www.BS.com/malignaggi-p ... ion--91572

[Tarkus]

How can it be both too early and too late? A draw?

[montrealsuper]

Fraudweather is ducking Pac 2 because he knows the syndicate will want Pac to win to set up a third fight - If it was so easy why wouldn't Fraud weather want to beat Pac again? Easy $ right?

[jezzamundo]

Pac tried to fight

Tried, failed and lost.

You cant fight a chicken who wants to run and pitter patter to the finish line where he knows his sugar daddy has the judges bought

I thought the 116-112 scorecards to Mayweather were reasonable, though in my eyes the fight was closer than that, while the 118-110 card was a joke. For some reason the compubox numbers in their fight seem pretty inaccurate - especially in the third round, which I saw as close but fairly clear to Pacquiao, but compubox had Floyd dominating that round.

[crusader]

Pac tried to fight

Tried, failed and lost.

You cant fight a chicken who wants to run and pitter patter to the finish line where he knows his sugar daddy has the judges bought

I think Floyd won clearly, but CompuBox numbers are just another set of opinions and I dont believe the connect disparity was as large as those stats suggest.

Do you agree with the Kov-Ward stats that had Kov outworking Ward, outlanding him overall, and beating him 7-5 in rounds for power connects? There was a KD on top of all that too, although it's just another shot going by CompuBox numbers.

[Tomasino]

I don't think wlad would have ever beat the Joshua he's about to fight. That being said, 18 months removed from the worst title fight in heavyweight history, it's hard to think wlads still in his 'prime'. Then again, who the hell knows when that was? He might be the same fighter, fury just took away his biggest weapon; holding.

I wish that wasn't true

[BitPlayer]

I think Floyd won clearly, but CompuBox numbers are just another set of opinions and I dont believe the connect disparity was as large as those stats suggest.

Do you agree with the Kov-Ward stats that had Kov outworking Ward, outlanding him overall, and beating him 7-5 in rounds for power connects? There was a KD on top of all that too, although it's just another shot going by CompuBox numbers.

I do agree with you, they often have innaccuracies, though they're usually in the right ballpark. The reason I posted them is it's comical to claim that the only reason he judgs had Floyd up in a fight was because they were bought and paid for, when the compubox guys saw it the same, which is why he started hillariously claiming compubox was rigged too.

[montrealsuper]

To be honest I don't think there really was a clear winner in the Pac Floyd fight - THere was not a clear decisive convincing winner - should have been a draw and then do the rematch - You should find it strange and curious and suspicious that Floyd has ducked the rematch - I believe it's because he knows the Vegas wiseguys would want Pac to win this time to force the third fight - Thought Kovalev won a close decision over Ward - Ward did well but not enough to take the belts from the champion - Looked like another inside job anti Russian rig job -

[Kalan]

How can it be both too early and too late? A draw?

EITHER too early or too late numbnuts.