Sergei Liakhovich: Odd Man Out

WBO heavyweight champ takes a swing at Wladimir Klitschko

As things in boxing’s marquee division continue to heat up, the four heavyweights of the Soviet apocalypse seem to be taking turns calling each other out.

Earlier in the week IBF heavyweight champ Wladimir Klitschko offered the newly crowned WBC heavyweight champ Oleg Maskaev a date in the Garden to replace the designated opponent Shannon Briggs.

And now Ivaylo Gotzev, the take-no-prisoners manager of Sergei “The White Wolf” Liakhovich, has sent an open letter to Klitschko clamoring for a fight. It reads:

An Open Letter to Wladimir Klitschko
From Sergei The White Wolf Liakhovich:

I am a The White Wolf and I want some fresh meat! Stop looking for road kill!

You challenged Lamon Brewster when he was lying in a hospital bed. Now you are challenging Oleg Maskaev, who just fought 12 hard rounds and needs time to heal. Does this make you brave?

My promoter Don King called your manager, Shelly Finkel, three weeks ago when I was in his office in Florida and offered to make the fight, but Shelly Finkel said “not now, maybe later.”

Why not on November 11? What will change later?

I believe our fight will show people who the best champion is right now. You were so eager to fight me last year, what happened now? Or maybe you are just glad you didn’t, after you saw what I did to Brewster?

If it is true about your “Vaseline” or some other excuses, why don’t you prove it? Fight the guy who beat the guy who beat you, or are you looking for an easy way to be a champion?

Sincerely,

Sergei Liakhovich
WBO Heavyweight Champion

As letters go that’s a damn good one and the points Liakhovich raises are good ones as well. Maybe the WBO is the lesser of the four major sanctioning bodies (rating sanctioning bodies is an inexact science and is not unlike ranking communicable diseases), but Liakhovich dismantled Lamon Brewster, who was riding with DK instead or training for the fight of his life, fair and square, which makes him as much a champion as anyone on earth.

Whether or not The White Wolf has the goods to defeat Klitschko only time and capital will tell, but maybe a measured attack on the Ukrainian’s bravery,’ or lack thereof, will goose the IBF champ into responding to the WBO’s champ’s written challenge.