19.04.05 – By Eddy Manning: It spins around and around, you put a fighter inside with hopes of being the next world champion, pit opponent after opponent in the ring with him and keep spinning towards the undisputed crown. Then..one day it stops spinning, is it broken or was it never really working? had the people spinning it been decieved into a false sense of confidence or had they been trying to deieve us? Ofcourse, the fighter I speak of in this instance is Wladimir Klitschko and the cement mixer is the now ‘ailing’ heavyweight division. Klitschko, who meets undefeated Eliseo Castillo, a relative unknown from the amatuer boxing capital of the world Cuba this Saturday night, still has high hopes of becoming the worlds number one heavyweight.
If you wanted to raise the stakes on this weekend match up, you could say it is Klitschkos last chance to show the world that he is still the technically sound, big hitting heavyweight we all once thought he was. Some will allready say, however, that Klitschko has had his last chance. It went up in smoke as he was finished off in brutal fashion by Lamon Brewster.
Or did people lose all hope when he was knocked down but earned a lackluster and unconvincing technical decision against Davaryl Williamson. Then, you could disregard either of those and look at the potential he once, and still may carry. Any way you look at the career of Wladimir Klitschko it is simple, he needs to beat Eliseo Castillo on Saturday night ,and beat him convincingly. If Klitschko is to start earning back the praise that he hasent heard in over two years, the road starts here.
Castillo, who holds on undefeated record of little acclaim in unknown to alot of the boxing public. He holds a victory over an ageing, but dangerous Michael Moorer and the rest of his record will not mean much to the average boxing fan. A Cuban native, Castillo boasts good movement and the finely tuned boxing skills that we have come to know from Cubans in the amatuer world of boxing. Castillo who will be giving both size and weight away to Klitschko comes into the ring at about 220 pounds, an average size for the modern day heavyweight. A speed advantage will be Castillos greatest asset come fight time, and if he uses it to assert his punches from the outside aswell as counter punching a slowish Klitschko- Castillo has a shot at outboxing the towering heavyweight.
Klitschko, who still poses the power that has bought him 39 knockouts from 43 wins is the favourite coming into the bout, and has a good chance of finishing Castillo early if he fights smart. In past times we have seen Wladimir ‘beat up’ his opponents before grinding out a late TKO, and if Klitschko has the right mindset we may just see exactly that. One of the most comanding jabs in heavyweight boxing aswell as combinations that land with purpose are Klitschkos best weapons. As we all know by now, the defense of the big man is open and at the moment, probably more ceceptable than ever to a few big shots. Manny Steward said in a teleconfrence earlier this week ”We have had over a year to work together with each other now, and it makes a big difference”. If what Emanual said is infact true, then expect a more confident and tighter defending Klitschko. If Wladimir wins on Saturday night he will stop Eliseo Castllo in the middle rounds.
Judgement day, redemption time, return of boxings biggest heavyweight underachiever?. Wladimir Klitschko still attracts a huge following in boxing circles worldwide for different reasons, we all know that if Wladimir has an off night it could be lights out again and maybe even lights out on what started as one of the most promising careers a white heavyweight may have ever had. The cement mixer that is the heavyweight division will keep spinning and Saturday night is another attempt to repair the ‘broken’ peice that is the career of Wladimir Klitschko.