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Wladimir Klitschko Continues to Reinvent Himself
NEW YORK – Wladimir Klitschko, it would appear, has found his Seven-Year Niche.
When last the younger of boxing’s two dominant heavyweights fought here, a thoroughly bland unanimous decision over Russia’s Sultan Ibragimov on Feb. 23, 2008, in Madison Square Garden, he was markedly different, both in and out of the ring. The “Dr. Steelhammer” who returns to this side of the pond after 13 title defenses in Europe very well may be a new and improved model for his HBO-televised April 25 title defense against undefeated Philadelphian Bryant “By-By” Jennings, also in the Garden. Maybe it really is possible for an old dog to learn new tricks, or a 39-in-March-year-old fighter to add a few sprinkles and swirls to what many Americans had perceived, rightly or wrongly, to be a plain-vanilla persona.
For one thing – and this is important – there is a strong likelihood that Jennings (19-0, 10 KOs) will provide the sort of determined resistance that Ibragimov, who clearly was in survival mode from the opening bell against the much larger, much harder-hitting Klitschko, did not. As Klitschko (63-3, 54 KOs) noted at Wednesday’s upbeat media gathering, it takes two to tangle. If he occasionally happens to find himself in there with an opponent who refuses to engage, Klitschko is too smart – what else can you say of a man who speaks four languages (Ukrainian, Russian, German and English) and holds a Ph.D. in sports science from the University of Kiev? – to try to force something that doesn’t naturally fit. The wise boxer does whatever is necessary to win and move on to the next bout and next set of variables to figure out.
“I cannot make the fight by myself,” reasoned Klitschko, who holds the IBF, WBO, WBA, The Ring and lineal championships. “I need somebody who wants to fight back. That’s what makes an exciting fight. If somebody just doesn’t want to get knocked out, it’s very difficult because you have to chase him.
“There have been different fights I’ve had in the 25 years of my career. I do have different qualities of boxing and punching and, if it’s needed, of clinching. It doesn’t matter. I know the game and I know how to win, to have lasted this long.”
In Germany, where Klitschko’s popularity is such that he’s sort of a Teutonic amalgamation of American sports icons LeBron James, Tom Brady and Derek Jeter, nobody seems to mind if the strategic options available to him swing from displays of pulverizing power to technical expertise to something akin to Greco-Roman grappling, as was the case in his unanimous-decision victory over Alexander Povetkin on Oct. 5, 2013, in Moscow, a snore-a-thon that featured 160-plus clinches, most of which were initiated by the 6-6½, 245-pound Ukrainian. On these cynical shores, haters are going to hate, but in the Fatherland Wlad the Impaler can do no wrong. Six of the 13 title defenses he’s made since beating Ibragimov had been in sold-out soccer stadiums, and seven in sold-out arenas.
Seldom, however, has Klitschko’s star shone as brightly in the United States as it does in Europe. So why was HBO Sports boss Ken Hershman smiling like the cat that ate the canary during the champ’s turn at the podium? Well, it might be because Klitschko-Jennings might actually turn out to be the entertaining heavyweight slugfest so many seem to think it will be, and maybe it’s because the proposed megafight that tentatively is scheduled to take place on May 2 in Las Vegas, which was to have paired superstar welterweight champions Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, and be jointly televised via pay-per-view by both HBO and Showtime, remains, as always, in perpetual tease mode. With each passing day and no agreement finalized, it appears that Money May and Pac-Man will settle for their own Plans B, which can only serve to further alienate a public that has wearied of their ongoing circle dance. If Mayweather-Pacquiao doesn’t happen – again – Klitschko-Jennings has center stage all to itself.
Klitschko seems much more prepared to seize the moment than he was in previous journeys to America. The robotic, monotone guy whom many depicted as a real-life Ivan Drago prior to his unification bout with Ibragimov has, well, loosened up quite a bit. Perhaps that’s because he’s pumped at becoming a father for the first time (fiancée Hayden Panetierre bore him a daughter, Kayla, on Dec. 8). More likely, it is the natural progression of a man who seems much more comfortable in his own skin and in an American setting that has not always been accommodating to him and to older brother Vitali, the former WBC heavyweight ruler. This Wlad is stand-up-comedian funny and insightful on any number of issues, from parenthood to the armed conflict on the Crimean peninsula, to his dream of representing Ukraine in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, which could be an outside possibility if AIBA (the international governing body for Olympic-style boxing), opens the sport without restriction to pros as is now the case in basketball, track and hockey.
On becoming a father: “I’ve been watching how my brother’s life has changed. He has three kids – two boys and a girl. He also said something that is more related to boxing. He said, `As father, I punch harder.’ So I’m, like, OK with that. Let’s see if it is true on April 25.”
On the continuing hostilities in Ukraine between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels who support that nation’s attempt to annex Crimea: “I am very aware of the struggle of the Ukrainian people, and the aggression that came from Russia. It is a situation that’s almost impossible to imagine, that during the day a city can be bombarded with rockets and schools are being hit, all because of the geopolitical ambitions of Russia. The world needs to pay attention to what’s going on. It’s not just a local problem. It’s a world problem. Nobody knows what it’s going to lead to. Nobody knows what it’s going to lead to. Who knows, maybe China says Siberia is ours, or Germany says part of Poland is ours, or Russia says Kazakhstan is ours.”
Of his vision of adding an Olympic gold medal in 2016, 20 years after he took gold in the super heavyweight division at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics: “That is my dream, to fight in the Olympics again, 20 years later, and to win the gold medal again. AIBA needs to get along with professional boxers. I know about the rules, that a certain number of pro bouts are allowed. Right now I’m not familiar with that. But, yeah, if there is a chance, I would love to participate. In every other sport, Olympic athletes can play professional and still compete. It’s a shame for boxing that professional boxers cannot perform in the Olympics.”
On the possibility of Vitali, who is 43 and whose last bout was in 2012, coming out of retirement to fight again: “Sometimes before my fights when he gets in, he says, `Man, this is such an exciting time, and I’m missing it.’ But he has responsibility now, as mayor of Kiev, for four million people.”
An interesting individual, this Dr. Steelhammer. But always the question remains as the pages of the calendar inexorably turn: How much gas is left in his tank at almost 39? Promoter Gary Shaw, who works with Jennings, said it is not out of the question that Klitschko will get old in a hurry against the 30-year-old challenger, who vows to throw all that he has at a man who will be appearing in his 27th world title bout.
“When people ask me what the outcome of the fight will be, I say, `It’s going to end in a knockout,’” Jennings said. “It’s either going to be me or him.’ One of us is going down. But guess what? I don’t think it’s going to be me.”
Added Shaw: “Twenty-five years ago, on Feb. 11 (1990), Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson. I believe on April 25, history will once again be made for an American heavyweight to do something spectacular. But this time, instead of being overseas (Tyson-Douglas was in Tokyo), it’ll be here in the United States.”
And here in the United States is the last frontier that Klitschko needs to conquer. It is at least that portion of the globe that he needs to reclaim for his perch upon the most gilded of thrones to be fully legitimized.
“`World champion’ means champion of the entire world,” Klitschko said. “You have to go around the world, like Muhammad Ali did in another time. I remember when my brother and I met Max Schmeling (the former heavyweight titlist who was 99 when he died in 2005). He said, `Guys, if you really want to make it, you have to make it in the States.’
“Fifteen years ago, I was fighting on the undercard of Michael Grant and Lennox Lewis, at Madison Square Garden. Was exciting night. That is the dream of every performer and entertainer, to be in main event at Madison Square Garden. There’s nothing better than this arena, worldwide. If you make it this far, it means you really made it. Frank Sinatra said it right. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. Madison Square Garden IS New York. I’m glad to be back.”
If Jennings is correct – and the fight ends in a knockout, preferably of the spectacular variety – boxing can only benefit, regardless of whether Mayweather and Pacquiao continue to play their infuriating game of hide-and-seek. With Deontay Wilder the new holder of the WBC title, by virtue of his unanimous decision over Bermane Stiverne on Jan. 17, the U.S. has its first heavyweight champ of any sort since Shannon Briggs in 2007. A Jennings shocker over Klitschko would again return all the belts to America, and if Klitschko is the man who gets there first with a big bomb, he again will figure prominently in HBO’s plans moving forward. That is quite a reversal for a man who, along with his brother Vitali, was all but shown the door by then-HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg in 2010. Asked about the Klitschkos, Greenburg dismissively said the pay-cable giant has “stopped playing in that sandbox.”
Times change. Attitudes can be adjusted. Wladimir Klitschko has now been repackaged for American consumption, and on April 25 a nation of would-be skeptics can see if the metamorphosis meets with its collective approval.
It’s hardly out of the question. Remember, Klitschko’s late trainer, Emanuel Steward, was unstinting in his appraisal of what Wlad was, and even more of what he could be if only more opponents elected to meet him strength-on-strength.
“For one-punch power, Wladimir tops them all,” Steward said. “If he ever became more aggressive and just went after people, he could be the most devastating puncher ever. I’ve trained many fighters, and Wladimir is one of the few who can turn the lights out without using the dimmer switch first.”
Jaron “Boots Ennis and Eimantis Stanionus are in the wrong era.
If they had fought in the late 70s and early 80s the boxing world would have seen them regularly on televised fight cards.
Instead, with the world’s attention span diluted by thousands of available programming, this richly talented pair of undefeated welterweights Ennis (33-0, 29 Kos) and Stanionis (15-0, 9 Kos) will battle in the smaller confines of Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City on Saturday April 12.
Thankfully, DAZN will stream the WBA and IBF welterweight world title fight on the Matchroom Boxing card.
If not for DAZN these two elite fighters and the sport of pro boxing might be completely invisible to the sports entertainment world.
These welterweights are special.
Ennis, a lean whip-quick fighter out of Philadelphia, stylistically reminds me of a Tommy Hearns but not as tall or long-armed as the Detroit fighter of the past.
“Win on Saturday and I’m the WBA, IBF and Ring Magazine champion, and then we’ll see what’s next. But I am zoned in on Stanionis,” said Ennis the IBF titlist.
Lithuania’s Stanionis and his pressure style liken to a Marvelous Marvin Hagler who would walk through fire to reach striking distance of a foes chin or abdomen.
“Ennis is slick, explosive, and they say he’s the future of the division. That’s why I signed the contract. I don’t duck anyone—I run toward the fire,” Stanionis said.
When Hagler and Hearns met in Las Vegas on April 1985, their reputations had been built on television with millions watching against common foes like Roberto Duran and Juan Roldan. Both had different styles just like Stanionis and Ennis and both could punch.
One difference was their ability to take a punch.
Hagler had a chin of steel, Hearns did not.
When Ennis and Stanionis meet in the boxing ring this Saturday, each is facing the most dangerous fighter of his career. Whose chin will hold up is the true question?
“This isn’t gonna be a chess match. This is going to be a war,” said Stanionis who holds the WBA title. “I’m stepping into that ring to test him, break him, and beat him. Let’s see how he handles real pressure.”
Ennis just wants to win.
“I’m at the point right now where I don’t care what people say,” said Ennis. “I’m here to do one thing and that’s put hands on you, that’s it.”
Golden Boy in Oceanside, CA
Next week budding star Charles Conway (21-0, 16 Kos) meets Mexico’s Jorge Garcia Perez (32-4, 26 Kos) in the semi-main event at Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California on Saturday April 19.
The two super welterweights are both ranked in the top 10 and the winner moves up to the elite level of the very stacked super welterweight division.
Conwell, who trains in Cleveland, Ohio, has been one of boxing’s best kept secrets and someone few champions and contenders want to face. Take my word for it, this kid can fight.
On the main event is undisputed female flyweight world champion Gabriela Fundora (15-0, 7 Kos) defending all her titles against Mexico’s Marilyn Badillo (19-0-1, 3 Kos).
Fundora is quickly becoming the most feared champion in boxing.
360 Promotions
Super welter prospect Sadridden Akhmedov (15-0, 13 Kos) meets Elias Espadas (23-6, 16 Kos) in the main event on Saturday April 19, at the Commerce Casino in Commerce, Calif. The 360 Promotions event will be streamed on UFC Fight Pass.
Also, Roxy Verduzco (3-0) meets Jessica Radtke (1-1-1) in a six rounds featherweight battle.
Fights to Watch
Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. Jarron Ennis (33-0) vs Eamantis Stanionis (15-0).
Photo credit: Mark Robinson
Dzmitry Asanau Flummoxes Francesco Patera on a Ho-Hum Card in Montreal
Camille Estephan’s Eye of the Tiger Promotions was at its regular pop stand at the Montreal Casino tonight. Upsets on Estephan’s cards are as rare as snow on the Sahara Desert and tonight was no exception.
The main event was a 10-round lightweight contest between Dzmitry “The Wasp” Asanau and Francesco Patera.
A second-generation prizefighter – his father was reportedly an amateur champion in Russia – Asanau, 28, had a wealth of international amateur experience and represented Belarus in the Tokyo Olympics. His punches didn’t sting like a wasp, but he had too much class for Belgium’s Patera whose claim to fame was that he went 10 rounds with current WBO lightweight champion Keyshawn Davis.
Two of the judges scored every round for the Wasp (10-0, 4 KOs) with the other seeing it 98-92. Patera falls to 30-6.
Co-Feature
Fast-rising Mexican-Canadian welterweight Christopher Guerrero was credited with three knockdowns en route to a one-sided 10-round decision over Oliver Quintana. A two-time Canadian amateur champion, Guererro improved to 14-0 (8).
The fight wasn’t quite as lopsided as what the scorecards read (99-88 and 98-89 twice). None of the knockdowns were particularly harsh and the middle one was a dubious call by the referee.
It was a quick turnaround for Guerrero who scored the best win of his career 8 weeks ago in this ring. The spunky but out-gunned Quintana, whose ledger declined to 22-4, was making his first start outside Mexico.
After his victory, Guerrero was congratulated by ringsider Terence “Bud” Crawford who has a date with Canelo Alvarez in September, purportedly in Las Vegas at the home of the NFL’s Raiders. Canelo has an intervening fight with William Scull on May 4 (May 3 in the U.S.) in Saudi Arabia.
Other Bouts of Note
In a fight without an indelible moment, Mary Spencer improved to 10-2 (6) with a lopsided decision over Ogleidis Suarez (31-6-1). The scores were 99-91 and 100-90 twice. Spencer was making the first defense of her WBA super welterweight title. (She was bumped up from an interim champion to a full champion when Terri Harper vacated the belt.)
A decorated amateur, the 40-year-old Spencer has likely reached her ceiling as a pro. A well-known sports personality in Venezuela, Suarez, 37, returned to the ring in January after a 26-month hiatus. An 18-year pro, she began her career as a junior featherweight.
In a monotonously one-sided fight, Jhon Orobio, a 21-year-old Montreal-based Colombian, advanced to 13-0 (11) with an 8-round shutout over Argentine campaigner Sebastian Aguirre (19-7). Orobio threw the kitchen sink at his rugged Argentine opponent who was never off his feet.
Wyatt Sanford
The pro debut of Nova Scotia’s Wyatt Sanford, a bronze medalist at the Paris Olympics, fell out when Sanford’s opponent was unable to make weight. The opponent, 37-year-old slug Shawn Archer, was reportedly so dehydrated that he had to be hospitalized.
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The flags at the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York, are flying at half-staff in honor of boxing trainer Kenny Adams who passed away Monday (April 7) at age 84 at a hospice in Las Vegas. Adams was formally inducted into the Hall in June of last year but was too ill to attend the ceremony.
A native of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Adams was a retired Army master sergeant who was part of an elite squadron that conducted many harrowing missions behind enemy lines during the Vietnam War. A two-time All-Service boxing champion, his name became more generally known in 1984 when he served as the assistant coach of the U.S. Olympic boxing team that won 11 medals, eight gold, at the Los Angeles Summer Games. In 1988, he was the head coach of the squad that won eight medals, three gold, at the Olympiad in Seoul.
Adams’ work caught the eye of Top Rank honcho Bob Arum who induced Adams to move to Las Vegas and coach a team of fledgling pros that he had recently signed. Bantamweight Eddie Cook and junior featherweight Kennedy McKinney, Adams’ first two champions, bubbled out of that pod. Both represented the U.S. Army as amateurs. McKinney was an Olympic gold medalist. Adams would eventually play an instrumental role in the development of more than two dozen world title-holders including such notables as Diego Corrales, Edwin Valero, Freddie Norwood, and Terence Crawford.
When Eddie Cook won his title from Venezuela’s 36-1 Israel Contreras, it was a big upset. Adams, the subject of a 2023 profile in these pages, was subsequently on the winning side of two upsets of far greater magnitude. He prepared French journeyman Rene Jacquot for Jacquot’s date with Donald Curry on Feb. 11 1989 and prepared Vincent Phillips for his engagement with Kostya Tszyu on May 31, 1997.
Jacquot won a unanimous decision over Curry. Phillips stopped Tszyu in the 10th frame. Both fights were named Upset of the Year by The Ring magazine.
Adams’ home-away-from-home in his final years as a boxing coach was the DLX boxing gym which opened in the summer of 2020 in a former dry cleaning establishment on the west-central side of the city. It was fortuitous to the gym’s owner Trudy Nevins that Adams happened to live a few short blocks away.
“He helped me get the place up and running,” notes Nevins who endowed a chair, as it were, in honor of her esteemed helpmate.
No one in the Las Vegas boxing community was closer to Kenny Adams than Brandon Woods. “He was a mentor to me in boxing and in life in general, a father figure,” says Woods, who currently trains Trevor McCumby and Rocky Hernandez, among others.
Akin to Adams, Woods is a Missourian. His connection to Adams comes through his amateur coach Frank Flores, a former teammate of Adams on an all-Service boxing team and an assistant under Adams with the 1988 U.S. Olympic squad.
Woods was working with Nonito Donaire when he learned that he had cancer (now in remission). He cajoled Kenny Adams out of retirement to assist with the training of the Las Vegas-based Filipino and they were subsequently in the corner of Woods’ fighter DeeJay Kriel when the South African challenged IBF 105-pound title-holder Carlos Licona at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Feb. 16, 2019.
This would be the last time they worked together in the corner and it proved to be a joyous occasion.
After 11 rounds, the heavily favored Licona, a local fighter trained by Robert Garcia, had a seemingly insurmountable lead. He was ahead by seven points on two of the scorecards. In the final round, Kriel knocked him down three times and won by TKO.
“I will always remember the pep talk that Kenny gave DeeJay before that final round,” says Woods. “He said ‘You mean to tell me that you came all the way from across the pond to get to this point and not win a title?’ but in language more colorful than that; I’m paraphrasing.”
“After the fight, Kenny said to me, ‘In all my years of training guys, I never saw that.’”
The fight attracted little attention before or after (it wasn’t the main event), but it would enter the history books. Boxing writer Eric Raskin, citing research by Steve Farhood, notes that there have been only 16 instances of a boxer winning a world title fight by way of a last-round stoppage of a bout he was losing. The most famous example is the first fight between Julio Cesar Chavez and Meldrick Taylor. Kriel vs. Licona now appears on the same list.
Brandon Woods notes that the Veterans Administration moved Adams around quite a bit in his final months, shuffling him to hospitals in North Las Vegas, Kingman, Arizona, and then Boulder City (NV) before he was placed in a hospice.
When Woods visited Adams last week, Adams could not speak. “If you can hear me, I would say to him, please blink your eyes. He blinked.
“There are a couple of people in my life I thought would never leave us and Kenny is one,” said Woods with a lump in his throat.
Photo credit: Supreme Boxing
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A Fresh Face on the Boxing Scene, Bryce Mills Faces His Toughest Test on Friday
Bernard Fernandez Reflects on His Special Bond with George Foreman
A Paean to George Foreman (1949-2025), Architect of an Amazing Second Act
Notes and Nuggets from Thomas Hauser: Callum Walsh Returns to Madison Square Garden
Spared Prison by a Lenient Judge, Chordale Booker Pursues a World Boxing Title
Sebastian Fundora TKOs Chordale Booker in Las Vegas
Boxing Odds and Ends: The Wacky and Sad World of Livingstone Bramble and More
Ever-Improving Callum Walsh KOs Dean Sutherland at Madison Square Garden
Avila Perspective, Chap. 318: Aussie Action, Vegas and More
Avila Perspective, Chap. 319: Rematches in Las Vegas, Cancun and More
Ringside at the Fontainebleau where Mikaela Mayer Won her Rematch with Sandy Ryan
Results and Recaps from Sydney where George Kambosos Upended Late Sub Jake Wyllie
Nick Ball Wears Down and Stops TJ Doheny Before the Home Folks in Liverpool
Avila Perspective, Chap. 317: Callum Walsh, Dana White and More
High Drama in Japan as ‘Amazing Boy’ Kenshiro Teraji Overcomes Seigo Yuri Akui
William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0
History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era
Avila Perspective, Chap. 320: Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame, Heavyweights and More
Results and Recaps from Las Vegas where Richard Torrez Jr Mauled Guido Vianello
Filip Hrgovic Defeats Joe Joyce in Manchester
Avila Perspective Chap 320: Boots Ennis and Stanionis
Dzmitry Asanau Flummoxes Francesco Patera on a Ho-Hum Card in Montreal
Remembering Hall of Fame Boxing Trainer Kenny Adams
Weekend Recap and More with the Accent of Heavyweights
Results and Recaps from Las Vegas where Richard Torrez Jr Mauled Guido Vianello
Filip Hrgovic Defeats Joe Joyce in Manchester
Avila Perspective, Chap. 320: Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame, Heavyweights and More
History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era
Ringside at the Fontainebleau where Mikaela Mayer Won her Rematch with Sandy Ryan
William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0
Avila Perspective, Chap. 319: Rematches in Las Vegas, Cancun and More
Boxing Odds and Ends: The Wacky and Sad World of Livingstone Bramble and More
A Paean to George Foreman (1949-2025), Architect of an Amazing Second Act
Sebastian Fundora TKOs Chordale Booker in Las Vegas
Bernard Fernandez Reflects on His Special Bond with George Foreman
Results and Recaps from Sydney where George Kambosos Upended Late Sub Jake Wyllie
Avila Perspective, Chap. 318: Aussie Action, Vegas and More
Spared Prison by a Lenient Judge, Chordale Booker Pursues a World Boxing Title
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