Why Wladimir Klitschko is Probably Much Better Than You Think

Published

9 years ago

September 8, 2014

The first gloved heavyweight champion, the great John L. Sullivan, was a loudmouthed drunk who relied on brute strength to overwhelm his opponents. The first time he faced a real sweet scientist, one that hadn’t aged beyond his worth, he was beaten till he dropped.

His successor, dainty boxer and wannabe actor, James J. Corbett, was knocked to his knees by a single body blow from a middleweight.

That middleweight, Bob Fitzsimmons, was overwhelmed by a giant slugger who basically relied on wearing down his opponents through equal parts toughness and girth until they were too tired to defend themselves.

The giant slugger, James J. Jeffries, retired undefeated before racial prejudice brought him back to the ring to face a 5-loss, 7-draw boxer named Jack Johnson who toyed with and humiliated him until knocking him out in the fifteenth round.

Johnson was beaten up by a giant, slow-footed fighter who didn’t even really like boxing. After he was knocked out, he was so embarrassed by it that he claimed he let the other guy win.

That giant slug of a man, Jess Willard, was butchered by a tiny hobo in the most one-sided beat down in boxing history.

That hobo, Jack Dempsey, was easily out-boxed by a careful technician named Gene Tunney, who barely even wanted to be heavyweight champion.

Tunney was knocked out by that same hobo in the very next fight, but was saved by a referee’s long ten count. He held onto win by decision, fought once more then plumb quit.

Max Schmeling was a Nazi.

His successor, Jack Sharkey, lost to a mob-controlled fighter who looked and fought more like a professional wrestler than a boxer.

That big oaf, Primo Carnera, couldn’t throw a straight jab-cross to save his life.

The man who saved the world from Carnera’s title reign, Max Baer, hit like a mule. But he didn’t take boxing seriously and was defeated by maybe the worst heavyweight champion ever.

James J. Braddock was a dockworker who got lucky against Baer, then held onto the title as long as he could until he was whacked by Joe Louis in eight rounds.

Joe Louis held the heavyweight championship for 12 years, but he fought bums and palookas most of his career and managed to get himself knocked down by the likes of Braddock.

Ezzard Charles was a blown up light heavyweight who was most famous for beating up Louis when the former heavyweight champion had returned from retirement and was an old man.

Jersey Joe Walcott was an even older man who was barely good enough to defeat Charles twice in three fights and got knocked out by a crude slugger named Rocky Marciano.

Marciano retired undefeated but he was short, stocky and cut easily. Marciano had terrible footwork and relied mostly on power and gumption.

Floyd Patterson was such a weirdo that he would dress up in costumes after he got knocked out in fights, which was often.

Sonny Liston knocked Patterson down a bazillion times in their two fights but was a mob-controlled fighter who got whipped by a loudmouth kid from Louisville.

That kid, Cassius Clay, later changed his name to Muhammad Ali for political reasons. Ali was all about pushing political propaganda because it was the right thing to do, but he called his opponents every name in the book so he could make a few dollars more on fight night.

Joe Frazier was tough as nails, but he was dumb enough to stand in front of George Foreman like a heavy bag both times he fought him, and managed to lose two out of three against Ali, his biggest and meanest rival.

Foreman was great when guys would stand in front of him like Frazier did, but had trouble with fighters who used their brains for more than just animal instincts. Foreman got beat up by an old version of Ali and wasn’t mentally strong enough to come back from it until years later.

Leon Spinks couldn’t fight his way out of a paper bag.

Larry Holmes was just a poor man’s Ali. He was slower, dumber and much more boring outside the ring than Ali and never nearly as popular. He almost eclipsed Marciano’s 49-0 record but then lost to a light heavyweight twice that Marciano would have crushed within three rounds.

That light heavyweight, Michael Spinks, was a better fighter than his brother, Leon, but was only good enough to outpoint the poor man’s Ali. The best thing you can say about Spinks is that he was dumb enough to fight a young Mike Tyson but smart enough to stay on the canvas when he was knocked down in Round 1.

Tyson, a convicted rapist, was great when people were scared of him. But when they weren’t, he was just like every other schoolyard bully who met his match: dead meat.

Buster Douglas fought one good fight. He beat Tyson like a red-headed stepchild but then ballooned up like a cow and got hammered by a spindly-legged cruiserweight named Evander Holyfield.

Holyfield tried to fight bigger guys by standing in front of them and slugging it out. That was fine against bums and fatties, but when he faced top-level fighters like Riddick Bowe and Lennox Lewis, he almost always lost.

Bowe had real talent but wasted it because he was an idiot.

Michael Moorer only became heavyweight champion because he was too afraid of his trainer to stop hitting Holyfield when the latter was suffering from heart palpitations. He then got knocked out by a 45-year-old Foreman.

Nobody cares about Shannon Briggs or Hasim Rahman.

Lennox Lewis was just bigger than everyone else. The first time he picked on someone his own size who could actually fight, Vitali Klitschko, he got lucky by winning on cuts, then retired so he’d never have to fight him again.

The truth can be twisted to whatever you want it to be so long as you choose to ignore whatever points you don’t feel like agreeing with. In reality, all these men were the heavyweight champion of the world at one time or another, an accomplishment unlike any other. There are only a handful of people in the history of the sport who were good enough to earn that distinction.

These men did it.

It’s easy to nitpick this or that about Wladimir Klitschko’s fighting style or his level of his competition. But Klitschko is king of the mountain and no one has been able to knock him off his perch. No one. And when someone does, or if he retires and someone else wears the crown because of it, he’ll certainly have done more in boxing than most.

Because, like the men listed above, Klitschko will have been the heavyweight champion of the world. So if you’re the type who buys into narratives like those presented above about anyone who has achieved such a lofty goal, you probably believe the same kinds of things about Klitschko, too. But you shouldn’t. Because like the rest of these guys, Klitschko is probably much better than you think.

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Kelsey McCarson

Canelo-Charlo Gets All the Ink, but Don’t Overlook the Compelling Match-up of Gassiev-Wallin in Turkey

Published

3 hours ago

September 26, 2023

Arne K. Lang

Canelo-Charlo-Gets-All-the-Ink-but-Don't-Overlook-This-Compelling-Match-in-Turkey

Canelo-Charlo Gets All the Ink, but Don’t Overlook the Compelling Match-up of Gassiev-Wallin in Turkey

The eyes of the boxing world will be on Las Vegas this Saturday where Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez risks his four super middleweight title belts against unified 154-pound champion Jermell Charlo. Earlier that day at a luxury resort hotel in the city of Antalya on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, there’s a heavyweight match sitting under the radar that may prove to be the better fight. It’s an intriguing match-up between former world cruiserweight title-holder Murat Gassiev and Swedish southpaw Otto Wallin, a bout with significant ramifications for boxing’s glamour division.

Gassiev (30-1, 23 KOs) and Wallin (25-1, 14 KOs) have only one loss, but those setbacks came against the top dogs in the division. Gassiev was out-boxed by Oleksandr Usyk back in the days when both were cruiserweights. Wallin gave Tyson Fury a world of trouble before losing a unanimous decision.

Since those fights, both have been treading water.

Gassiev

Gassiev was inactive for 27 months after his match with Usyk while dealing with legal issues and an injury to his left shoulder. He is 4-0 (4 KOs) since returning to the ring while answering the bell for only eight rounds. The only recognizable name among those four victims is German gatekeeper Michael Wallisch. After stopping Wallisch, Gassiev was out of action for another 13 months while reportedly dealing with an arm injury.

A first-round knockout of Carlouse Welch, an obscure 40-something boxer from the U.S. state of Georgia on Aug. 26, 2022, in Belgrade, Serbia, was promoted as a title fight. The sanctioning body was the Eurasian Boxing Parliament (insert your own punchline here). Gassiev followed that up with a second-round knockout of former NFL linebacker Mike Balogun who came in undefeated and was seemingly a legitimate threat to him.

Although he has yet to fight a ranked opponent since leaving the cruiserweight division, Gassiev — a former stablemate of Gennady Golovkin who has been living in Big Bear, California, training under Abel Sanchez – is one of the most respected fighters in the division because he has one-punch knockout power as Balogun and others can well attest. The rub against the Russian-Armenian bruiser is that he is somewhat robotic.

Wallin

Otto Wallin, a 32-year-old southpaw from Sweden who trains in New York under former world lightweight champion Joey Gamache, fought Tyson Fury on Sept. 14, 2019 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. There was a general feeling that the Swede would be a stroll in the park for Fury, but to the contrary, he gave the Gypsy King a hard tussle while losing a unanimous decision.

Wallin is 5-0 since that night beginning with victories over Travis Kauffman (KO 5) and Dominic Breazeale (UD 12), but his last three opponents were softer than soft and all three lasted the distance. In order, Wallin won an 8-round decision over Kamil Sokolowski, who was 11-24-2 heading in, won a 10-round decision over ancient Rydell Booker, and won an 8-round decision over Helaman Olguin. His bout with Utah trial horse Olguin was at a banquet hall in Windham, New Hampshire.

It isn’t that Wallin has been avoiding the top names in the division; it’s the other way around. His promoter Dmitriy Salita reportedly came close to getting Wallin a match with Anthony Joshua whose team had second thoughts about sending Joshua in against another southpaw after back-to-back setbacks to Oleksandr Usyk.

Gassiev vs Wallin is a true crossroads fight. Both are in dire need of a win over a credible opponent. At last look, Gassiev, who figures to have the crowd in his corner, was a 3/1 favorite.

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Skavynskyi and Bustillos Win on a MarvNation Card in Long Beach

Published

2 days ago

September 24, 2023

David A. Avila

Skavynskyi and Bustillos Win on a MarvNation Card in Long Beach

LONG BEACH, Ca.-A cool autumn night saw welterweights and minimumweights share main events for a MarvNation fight card on Saturday.

Ukraine’s Eduard Skavynskyi (15-0, 7 KOs) experienced a tangled mess against the awkward Alejandro Frias (14-10-2) but won by decision after eight rounds in a welterweight contest at the indoor furnace called the Thunder Studios.

It was hot in there for the more than 600 people inside.

Skavynskyi probably never fought someone like Mexico’s Frias whose style was the opposite of the Ukrainian’s fundamentally sound one-two style. But round after round the rough edges became more familiar.

Neither fighter was ever damaged but all three judges saw Skavynskyi the winner by unanimous decision 79-73 on all three cards. The Ukrainian fighter trains in Ventura.

Bustillo Wins Rematch

Applerose2

In the female main event Las Vegas’ Yadira Bustillos (8-1) stepped into a rematch with Karen Lindenmuth (5-2) and immediately proved the lessons learned from their first encounter.

Bustillos connected solidly with an overhand right and staggered Lindenmuth but never came close to putting the pressure fighter down. Still, Bustillos kept turning the hard rushing Lindenmuth and snapping her head with overhand rights and check left hooks.

Lindenmuth usually overwhelms most opponents with a smothering attack that causes panic. But not against Bustillos who seemed quite comfortable all eight rounds in slipping blows and countering back.

After eight rounds all three judges scored the contest for Bustillos 78-74 and 80-72 twice. Body shots were especially effective for the Las Vegas fighter in the fifth round. Bustillos competes in the same division as IBF/WBO title-holder Yokasta Valle.

Other Bouts

In a middleweight clash, undefeated Victorville’s Andrew Buchanan (3-0-1) used effective combination punching to defeat Mexico’s Fredy Vargas (2-1-1) after six rounds. Two judges scored it 59-55 and a third 60-54 for Buchanan. No knockdowns were scored.

A super lightweight match saw Sergio Aldana win his pro debut by decision after four rounds versus Gerardo Fuentes (2-9-1).

Photos credit: Al Applerose

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Tedious Fights and a Controversial Draw Smudge the Matchroom Boxing Card in Orlando

Published

3 days ago

September 23, 2023

Arne K. Lang

Tedious-Fights-and-a-Controversial-Draw-Smudge-the-Matchroom-Boxing-Card-in-Orlando

Matchroom Boxing was at the sprawling Royale Caribe Resort Hotel in Orlando, Florida tonight with a card that aired on DAZN. The main event was a ho-hum affair between super lightweights Richardson Hitchins and Jose Zepeda.

SoCal’s Zepeda has been in some wars in the past, notably his savage tussle with Ivan Baranchyk, but tonight he brought little to the table and was outclassed by the lanky Hitchins who won all 12 rounds on two of the cards and 11 rounds on the other. There were no knockdowns, but Zepeda suffered a cut on his forehead in round seven that was deemed to be the product of an accidental head butt and another clash in round ten forced a respite in the action although Hitchins suffered no apparent damage.

It was the sort of fight where each round was pretty much a carbon of the round preceding it. Brooklyn’s Hitchins, who improved to 17-0 (7), was content to pepper Zepeda with his jab, and the 34-year-old SoCal southpaw, who brought a 37-3 record, was never able to penetrate his defense and land anything meaningful.

Hitchins signed with Floyd Mayweather Jr’s promotional outfit coming out of the amateur ranks and his style is reminiscent in ways of his former mentor. Like Mayweather, he loses very few rounds. In his precious engagement, he pitched a shutout over previously undefeated John Bauza.

Co-Feature

In the co-feature, Conor Benn returned to the ring after an absence of 17 months and won a unanimous decision over Mexico’s Rodolfo Orozco. It wasn’t a bad showing by Benn who showed decent boxing skills, but more was expected of him after his name had been bandied about so often in the media. Two of the judges had it 99-91 and the other 96-94.

Benn (22-0, 14 KOs) was a late addition to the card although one suspects that promoter Eddie Hearn purposely kept him under wraps until the week of the fight so as not to deflect the spotlight from the other matches on his show. Benn lost a lucrative date with Chris Eubank Jr when he was suspended by the BBBofC when evidence of a banned substance was found in his system and it’s understood that Hearn has designs on re-igniting the match-up with an eye on a date in December. For tonight’s fight, Benn carried a career-high 153 ½ pounds. Mexico’s Orozco, who was making his first appearance in a U.S. ring, declined to 32-4-3.

Other Bouts of Note

The welterweight title fight between WBA/WBC title-holder Jessica McCaskill (15-3-1) and WBO title-holder Sandy Ryan (6-1-1) ended in a draw and the ladies’ retain their respective titles. Ryan worked the body effectively and the general feeling was that she got a raw deal, a sentiment shared by the crowd which booed the decision. There was a switch of favorites in the betting with the late money seemingly all on the Englishwoman who at age 30 was the younger boxer by nine years.

The judges had it 96-94 Ryan, 96-95, and a vilified 97-93 for Chicago’s McCaskill.

In the opener of the main DAZN stream, Houston middleweight Austin “Ammo” Williams, 27, improved to 15-0 (10) with a 10-round unanimous decision over 39-year-old Toronto veteran Steve Rolls (22-3). All three judges had it 97-93. Rolls has been stopped only once, that by Gennady Golovkin.

Photo credit: Ed Mulholland / Matchroom Boxing

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