Wladimir Klitschko and Ruslan Chagaev To Hold an Eastern Bloc(k) Party

The heavyweight championship fight between Wladimir Klitschko and Ruslan Chagaev this Saturday will be aired on ESPN Classic.  We’re lucky as boxing fans to get that, I suppose.  After the original challenger to Klitschko’s title, David Haye, was injured during training, HBO passed on the substitute, Chagaev.

Since when does The Heavyweight Champion of the World get passed on to the second/third-tier of what’s considered by many to be the premiere sports network in the world?

Let me repeat the title:  THE HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD.

The man who should be considered the “baddest” man on the planet.

Wladimir is how we’ll refer to him from here on out.  No, no it’s not the same as when we’d say Michael (as in Jordan) or Madonna (as in, well, Madonna).  It’s not that he’s a superstar on the “one-name” plateau, it’s just that as boxing fans know, there’s more than one prominent Klitschko out there. 

Now back to my original train of thought.  Wladimir’s fight will air on ESPN Classic.  The fact that MLS soccer, a NASCAR show and the College World Series will all get more promo airtime by the network is a sign of the times.  It shows how lightly regarded the once revered title of “The Heavyweight Champion of the World” has become.

That’s a title that carries with it a legacy of greatness.  It holds the ultimate tradition of being the alpha male.  I know that there are many, many men who’d rather have that title than that of President of the United States, or the King of England or even the world’s sexiest man (as voted in some lifestyle magazine or other). 

Wladimir is, in my book, the heavyweight championship of the world, hands down.  There should be no argument.  I know that The Ring magazine only recognizes him as the number one heavyweight, and not the heavyweight champion, but this is one time that I’ll disagree with what’s considered by many as the most important boxing journal of our time and possibly of all time. 

They’re just not right on this one.

Wladimir has ducked no one.  It’s not his fault that the heavyweight division isn’t as it once was.  He fights everyone placed in front of him with no exceptions. 

The following is a list of the last eight opponents he’s faced:  Hasim Rahman, Tony Thompson, Sultan Ibragimov, Lamon Brewster, Ray Austin, Calvin Brock, Chris Byrd and Samuel Peter.  All of the aforementioned save for Peter and Ibragimov were knockout victories.

So why isn’t Klitschko followed more ardently by the sports media, and for that matter, boxing fans in general?  I’ve got a few theories.

The first thought is that we’ve seen him lose to fighters who we felt he should’ve dominated.  In this same vein, I believe that people were happy to see that.  They wanted to see “The Russian” lose.  They wanted him to lose because they wanted to make him into Ivan Drago from Rocky IV.  He’s not though.  He’s not the evil nemesis to the western world.

What shouldn’t be considered an inconsequential occurrence is that Wladimir, following his last loss which came at the hands of Brewster, went out and hired Emmanuel Steward, the world-renown trainer of champions.  Steward is known as the trainer of men long on championship material, and dually correlated, long on reach. 

This brings me to the second reason that I’ve determined is a detriment to Wladimir.  It’s his intent.  I totally believe that Steward has “fixed” Wladimir.  He’s tried to mold him after the last great heavyweight champion, Lennox Lewis. 

However, whereas Wladimir seemingly uses his jab to deter, or even slowly break down an opponent, Lewis used his jab to punish.

Jab, jab, jab and then the straight right follows.  It’s the same with Klitschko and Lewis, but much different.  The intent from Lewis was to punish; the intent with Klitschko is to defend. 

What people want from a heavyweight champion is destruction.  They generally get it from Klitschko, but the end result is reached via a much less satisfying, much more cautious route.

The third and most obvious reason is that he’s Ukrainian.  Save for Cris Arreola and a couple of others, there just aren’t many American heavyweight contenders.  The would-be American champions are football and basketball stars now.  Just imagine if Ray Lewis or Shawne Merriman were boxers.  How about Ron Artest or LeBron James? 

Alas, they’re not fighters (at least not in the squared circle, anyhow) and besides, one the most beautiful aspects of boxing is that it’s a truly international sport.

So as it stands, the Ukrainian Klitschko will defend/unify against the fighter from Uzbekistan, Chagaev, in Germany and if front of a reported 60,000 fans.  It ain’t a heavyweight title fight at the Garden or even as Caesar’s in Las Vegas, but it’s a huge deal in Germany, which is a burgeoning hotbed of boxing.

Let’s not discount Chagaev either.  It’s not as provocative a matchup as Wladimir vs. Haye, but believe me that Chagaev has a much, much better chance than Haye.  In the back of my mind it’s easy to imagine Chagaev coming out and fighting exactly like Ibragimov did when he had his crack at Wladimir. 

That would be the worst thing that could happen.  The public doesn’t need to see two more Eastern Europeans dancing again.  We’ll see enough of that when some no-account network decides to air an international couples gymnastics competition some Saturday afternoon instead of a boxing fight. 

But, in all honesty, Haye talked his way into that fight and it was somewhat undeserving.  I didn’t see him lasting beyond round five—at best.  This isn’t to discount Haye out of hand, I just think that Wladimir is too big and too good.  A great, exciting fight for Haye would be with Tomasz Adamek, but that’s another subject for another time. 

Chagaev came to this destination as the challenger to Wladimir through somewhat strange circumstances.  He was set to fight Nikolai Valuev a few weeks ago in a rematch of a Chagaev victory. 

The fight was cancelled when Swiss doctors didn’t want to clear Chagaev because of the Hepatitis which Chagaev was known to have before the fight was ever scheduled.  It turns out that everything has fallen right for Chagaev.

Chagaev fought a brilliantly disciplined fight against the seven foot, 300 pound Valuev the first time around.  He showed himself to be a tough, strong and well-schooled fighter. 

Chagaev has proven he can win against men much larger than himself.  But the gulf between Valuev and Wladimir is deep and wide.  Valuev is a slow, lumbering giant.  Wladimir can be like a big cat when moved by the notion. 

Chagaev’s best chance is to get under Wladimir’s jab and get into his body and get close for his shorter, more compact punches.  What will be telling is whether Chagaev is willing to walk through those stiff jabs to even the field.  These jabs have worn down and broken most of Wladimir’s previous opponents. 

Hopefully, Chagaev does possess the will to walk through the fire to stir up a fight.  If he can, or more importantly, if he has the desire to get inside, Wladimir would have no choice but to engage in fisticuffs and not simply defend.

That would be the best thing that could happen to Wladimir.  And as most believe, as goes the heavyweight champion goes boxing as a whole.