By Michael Collins: Undefeated heavyweight contender Tyson Fury (19-0, 14 KO’s) has already counted tonight’s fight against American Kevin Johnson (28-2-1, 13 KO’s) as a victory in the win column and he’s looking past Johnson towards a much wanted fight against either Vitali Klitschko or his brother Wladimir Klitschko. It remains to be seen whether Fury can get past Johnson, but if he does he’ll likely get one of the Klitschkos in the ring because they’re interested in fighting him.
Wladimir Klitschko
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The Legacy of Emanuel Steward Part 5: Exclusive Interview with Heavyweight Champion Wladimir Klitschko
“Believe it or not, the monster has been created and Emanuel is with me. Even if he is not there he is with me. He is whispering in my ear as soon as I’m getting in the gym.”—Wladimir Klitschko
Exclusive Interview by Geoffrey Ciani – This is Part Five of an ongoing series dedicated to the memory and legacy of an extraordinary individual, Emanuel Steward, whose contributions to the world of boxing are simply remarkable. In this installment, I had the privilege of speaking with the Heavyweight Champion of the world, Wladimir Klitschko (59-3, 50 KOs), who is coming off of a lopsided unanimous decision victory when he successfully defended his crown against Mariusz Wach (27-1, 15 KOs) last Saturday night. This was Klitschko’s first bout without Steward since the two first paired up more than eight years ago. Wladimir provided his views and unique insight, and also shared some of his experiences working together with the Hall of Fame trainer. Here is what Wladimir had to say:
GEOFFREY CIANI: Wladimir, first of all I want to congratulate you on another outstanding victory this past weekend. I got to say I’m surprised that Wach was able to stand up to your shots for twelve rounds. How do you feel about your performance?
WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO: I should say that Wach showed a big heart, with no doubt. He had to absorb really bad punishment in the ring, because I know those shots were not easy to take. I felt my knuckles almost on every shot, and this man was like made out of rock. He took a lot of punishment. So I have a lot of respect for him for keeping on going, and especially in the eighth round when the referee almost stopped the fight and his corner let him go the next round. So I was really impressed with that performance, but it was another title defense and that’s basically it.
CIANI: Now I know this must have been difficult for you on some level, being your first fight without Emanuel Steward since you two first joined forces. For you, how was it dealing with that scenario for the first time without Emanuel for your preparations and for the fight itself?
KLITSCHKO: I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining with how difficult it was. You can imagine it was not easy to all of us, to the entire team, to get to know one week and a half before the fight that Emanuel passed away. It was something that really affected the entire team, and we’re still actually affected by that. We miss Emanuel! I mean everything in the training camp and everything related to boxing, in my life in boxing, is Emanuel Steward. I am Emanuel Steward in a certain way, because he shaped the size of my character and my presence in this world as I am, through Emanuel. And I feel this before when I worked with Emanuel. I finally could see Lennox Lewis, because Lennox Lewis is also Emanuel Steward. He’s a part of Emanuel Steward, and Tommy Hearns and everyone else. It’s just something that is difficult to describe with words how much we miss him and how much it hurt us.
Wach blew his chance against Wladimir by not throwing enough punches
By Michael Collins: In dissecting what went wrong for the huge 6’7 1/2″ Mariusz Wach (27-1, 15 KO’s) last Saturday night in his embarrassingly one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss to IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (59-3, 50 KO’s) in Hamburg, Germany, it comes down Wach’s failure to let his hands go.
Wach had the built in power to win the fight if he had thrown some damn punches, but no. Wach fought passively by just covering up and every once in awhile throwing a wild right hand that frequently missed badly.
Wach’s mistake was that he just covered up like a sparring partner instead of taking advantage of what could be his only opportunity to ever fight for a world title. I can’t see Wach ever getting another chance at a strap unless the sanctioning bodies give him an inflated ranking off of a bunch of wins over lower level opposition.
Has the time has come to create a new division – a superheavyweight division?
Rob Moore: After watching another Wladimir Klitschko win, this time over the even bigger Mariusz Wach, I had to face up to the fact that my interest in watching much of what the heavyweight division has to offer, has waned considerably . The same division that that used to excite me and initiated my lifelong interest in the sport.
So many fights are truly underwhelming with guys showing limited range of skills, movement and conditioning, leading me to bore my kids with accounts of quality of fighters who graced the division in the past. You could never accuse Wladimir of not coming in in top condition and Wach showed great heart, but was the fight really top quality boxing and entertainment?
Unfortunately it seems like my diminished interest is shared by many, particularly in the US which just isn’t good for the sport’s future. There is certainly a valid point made by many that the Klitschko brothers have dominated the division for so long that it has hurt the division outside of Germany. While there is some mileage in that view, I see the problem as being more fundamental, and can be largely attributed the sheer size and weight of modern day heavyweights and the limitations this brings.
Wach should take a long break to recover from loss to Wladimir
By Kevin Chittenden: Heavyweight Mariusz Wach (27-1, 15 KO’s) should take a long break from boxing to recover from the one-sided 12 round beating he took from IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (59-3, 50 KO’s) last Saturday night in Hamburg, Germany. Wach was hit a reported 425 times by Wladimir in the fight with 115 of them being hard right hands to the head and the other 310 coming from powerful jabs.
Cruiserweight “Fast” Eddie Chambers: “Marco Huck should worry about defending his title…not Wladimir Klitschko”
By Joseph Herron: This past week, WBO Cruiserweight title holder Marco Huck publicly announced his $5 Million proposal to universally recognized Heavyweight Champion Wladimir Klitschko before stepping in the ring with 42 year old title challenger Firat Arslan on Saturday, November 3rd, in Nordhein-Westfalen, Germany.
But moments after getting past the experienced former title holder uncomfortably, former Heavyweight title challenger and newly proclaimed Cruiserweight contender “Fast” Eddie Chambers from Philadelphia, PA, USA, had several comments regarding the reigning WBO Champ’s recent activity.
“First of all, struggling with an experienced former title holder really doesn’t incriminate or diminish Marco Huck as a Cruiserweight Champion,” insists the 30 year old American hopeful. “Anyone can give you fits on any given night at this level.”
Klitschko vs. Wach this Saturday
By Rob Smith, photo: michaelsterlingeaton.com – IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (58-3, 50 KO’s) will be defending his titles this Saturday night against the huge and lumbering Mariusz Wach (27-0, 15 KO’s) at the O2 World Arena in Hamburg, Germany. Wladimir says he’s taking this fight against the inexperienced Wach because none of the other top heavyweights want to fight him.
It’s hard to imagine that being true when there are arguably at least 20 heavyweights that Wladimir could pool from that would give him a tougher test than the 32-year-old Wach. Perhaps the more likely reason that Wladimir selected Wach, besides him being an easy mark, is because of the large Polish fan base that Wach has.
Setting up a fight with Wach is a good money bout compared to some of the other more dangerous options. This is why Wladimir will likely take on another Polish heavyweight in Tomasz Adamek next year in what shapes to be about as bad a mismatch as Wladiimr’s fight against Wach.
Huck vs. Klitschko will be a tough sale now in Germany
By Dwight Chittenden: If IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko does turn and decide on fighting WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck, he may not get the kind of attention that previously may have been available before last night. In yet another fight involving Huck, he defeated 42-year-old contender Firat Arslan by a hugely controversial decision in Germany and the fight result of the fight wasn’t agreeable with the German public that watched the fight live at the Gerry Weber Stadium, Halle, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.
Huck is becoming a regular to controversial decisions and for the most part they seem to favor him. But this kind of thing is starting to wear thin, and he didn’t help himself any getting a decision given to him that boxing as a whole didn’t agree with. But even you ignore the controversial decision, which is impossible to do, you can’t can’t around how poorly Huck fought against Arslan. Huck’s shots were picked off all night on the gloves of Arslan, and Huck just looked weak and inept.
If Wladimir wants to fight Huck after this it could be the equivalent of a stink bomb wherever the fight takes place. If Wladimir wants to fight a cruiserweight then he should be fighting Arslan, not Huck. That sends the wrong message when you fight a guy that appeared to lose in the minds of many boxing fans.
Interesting Match-Ups Await “Dr. Steel Hammer” – are Wach, Povetkin, Boytsov/Fury soon to give Wladimir a real fight?
By James Slater – Those fans who have been waiting oh, so long to see heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko’s formidable skills tested to the full might, just might be about to see the 36-year-old in a real fight. Hardly pushed at all since his first encounter with the hard-hitting Samuel Peter, way back in 2005 (although to be fair, David Haye did win a couple of sessions during his July 2011 challenge of Wlladimir), Klitschko has gone through the likes of Ruslan Chagaev, Jean Marc Mormeck and, last time out, Tony Thompson, like a hot knife through warm butter.
But the seemingly laughably easy fights may be at an end for the unified WBA, WBO, IBF, IBO ruler. Next up for Wladimir is unbeaten but unproven (at the highest level) Polish banger Mariusz Wach. No, this fight, set for Nov. 10th, doesn’t look exactly like an ultra-dangerous fight for Wladimir, but the outside chance of a potential banana skin awaits him all the same. Not only is Wach, 27-0(15) a pretty stiff puncher, with the right hand especially, he is also able to look Wladimir directly in the eye. Much has been made of the fact that never before has Wladimir faced so tall an adversary, and, with the sad passing of his long-time trainer and friend Emanuel Steward, this fight could possibly prove difficult for Klitschko.
Klitschko vs Wach: Wladimir has to avoid Wach’s big right hand
By Dwight Chittenden: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (58-3, 50 KO’s) defends against one of the harder punchers in the heavyweight division in 32-year-old Mariusz Wach (27-0, 15 KO’s) on November 10th at the O2 World Arena, in Hamburg, Germany. Wach’s KO percentage isn’t all that high, but you have to remember that he didn’t really learn to punch properly until three years ago. Before that, Wach was more of a diamond in the rough and was throwing wild looping right hands that were more like wallops than punches.