Klitschko and Klitschko: No Hope for the Heavyweights

A few weeks ago I had the displeasure of watching Samuel Peter, upon whom the future of the Heavyweight division rested, quit on his stool after eight insufferable rounds of ineffective flailing.  On a historical note, Peter joins Jess Willard and Sonny Liston on the list of Heavyweights who surrendered their title on their stool. 

But let’s pause and think for a minute.  The real problem isn’t that Peter fought a terrible fight, or that Vitali, who was never a hall-of-famer, had the luxury of keeping his hands at his hips and never throwing anything stiffer than a pawing jab, was able to beat him easily, no. 

The real problem is that Peter was never the champion in the first place.  And for all you Ukrainians and avid fans of broken English say anything, neither is Wladimir Klitschko.  Some of you are asking who is then?  The answer is nobody. 

Ever since Lennox Lewis retired four years ago, the Ring magazine heavyweight championship of the world has been vacant, and the belt from “The Bible of Boxing” is the only one that really matters.  The Sanctioning bodies are too numerous and too corrupt, continually feeding sloppy, untested, mandatory challengers to illegitimate champions, to claim any authority within the squared circle. 

Boxing was without a compass for many years, but the Ring finally reinstated their championship policy in 2002.  Lewis retired with the title, so his successor may only be decided by pitting the number one and number two contenders against each other.  Surprisingly this hasn’t happened in four years! 

The last time there was no Champion was between 1928 and 1930.  Tunney retired with the title, and stayed retired, and it was two years before the top two contenders were able to meet in the ring.  Certainly Marciano retired with the crown as well, but a tournament was immediately organized when he announced his retirement in May of 1956 and by fall of ’56 there was a new champion, Floyd Patterson. 

But four years?  It sounds like the top contenders are ducking each other. 

And this comes to my disappointment with Peter.  At the time of the fight, Wladimir Klitschko was ranked number one contender to the vacant title.  Peter was ranked number two.  It seemed a logical bet that an old, injured, ring-rusted Vitali would crumble under Peter’s awesome power, but we were wrong. 

And so now, the number one and number two contenders to a vacant championship are both named Klitschko, and they will never fight each other.  This means that until someone shows up who beat both of them, we will not have a heavyweight champion.  What angers me most is when Vitali talks about being champion at the same time as his brother. 

Are you kidding me?  Two men cannot be the champion concurrently when there is one planet to be champion of.  This is the whole argument against the sanctioning bodies.

This is another reason Boxing is having more trouble than necessary returning to the mainstream.  While there are plenty of talented fighters in the lighter weight-classes, the heavyweights, always the most watched division whose champion has been regarded as the ultimate fighting man on the planet, are still rudderless and without any sign of hope. 

This brings up my final point:  When will Vitali fight again, if ever?  It’s been three years since he left the ring due to that severe eye injury, and it took him more than a year to get through a six-week training camp when he decided to come back. 

So if you’re waiting for Vitali to announce when he’ll make the first defense of his newly won “Championship”, don’t hold your breath.  In fact, don’t hold your mortgage, because chances are you’ll pay that off before he fights again. 

Vladimir has been relatively active this year, three fights, but against terrible opposition.  Sultan Ibragimov had the WBO strap, but as an awkward southpaw, he was able to turn his February meeting with Dr. Steelhammer into a wrestling match.  Tony Thompson is 37 years old, also a southpaw, and has less power than an electric razor. 

Wladimir’s final match this year will be against Alexander Povetkin, who only has 16 professional fights and is an as of yet untested prospect.  So if you’re also waiting for Wladimir to fight someone who can beat him, you might want to look into cryogenics so that they can thaw you out when it’s time to watch him take on a legitimate contender. 

The heavyweight division is always the money division making it by default Boxing’s primary route to the mainstream.  Without a respected champion, or a champion period, boxing will have to wait a little while longer before a second renaissance will happen. 

Think about it:  Lightweight, Welterweight, and Cruiserweight are stocked with talent, not to mention two guys in Jr. Feather named Vazquez and Marquez who turned in an ungodly three fight series last year, and a likeable, marketable, white kid from blue collar Youngstown is the Middleweight champ.  Boxing has turned a corner in the last two years.  All we need is some hope in the heavyweight division.

On a historical note:  Liston quit after six rounds and he was being outclassed by a 22 year old Muhammad Ali, and had no hope even though he was cheating.  Willard fought three rounds against a 24 year old Dempsey, who was at his peak, and suffered seven broken bones in his face and three broken ribs. 

Samuel Peter quit after eight boring rounds against a 37 year old, injury-prone, “ex-champion” who hadn’t fought in over three years.  Peter also still had a puncher’s chance.  What does this tell you about the Nigerian Nightmare?