03.05.06 – By Michael Montero: This is the first edition of Montero’s Boxing Notebook, my random rants and raves on the current boxing scene. Lately there’s plenty going on in the sport to keep boxing fans entertained and talking, so there’s a lot to cover. Let’s get started…
Wladimir Klitschko, the new Lennox Lewis?
As Wladimir’s career develops, it’s almost eerie how he’s looking more and more like the former undisputed champ. Like Lewis, he had a decorated run in the amateurs culminated by a Gold Medal performance in the Olympics. After a quick rise to the top of the heavyweight division, Wlad suffered setbacks, losing to fighters he was favored to (and should have) beat, only to once again rise to the top after teaming up with Emmanuel Stewart. Sound familiar? What remains to be seen is if Klitschko can unify the belts and become the dominant heavyweight of his time, as Lewis did.
Not only do these fighters have similar career paths, but similar styles as well. Just like Lennox, Wladimir is a tall, physically dominating, powerful fighter who works behind the jab. While this makes him very tough to beat, it also feeds into his weaknesses, which are the same ones that his predecessor had. Klitschko is so rangy, athletic and tall that he rarely gets hit, so it’s a shock to the system when he finally does take a flush shot. He’s just not used to taking hard punches to the chin. Couple that with the fact that he has to carry that 240+ pound frame around the ring, which leads to stamina issues, and there you have the same weaknesses that troubled Lewis at times in his career. Again, what remains to be seen is if Wlad can learn to overcome his weaknesses like Lennox did and become the recognized, undisputed, champion. Only time will tell…
Calzaghe jumps ship
Rumor has it that the best 168-pounder in the world (and of all time?) is leaving Showtime and will sign a two or three fight deal with HBO. This opens up the possibilities to future match ups with Antonio Tarver, Winky Wright and/or Jermain Taylor; and, I for one, would love to see all three of those fights. If Tarver gets past Hopkins, and he should, then he’s the logical choice for Calzaghe as he’s fading and on the way out. Yet, if Wright beats Taylor he would be considered the top pound for pound guy in the sport and become the best choice (in my opinion). Wright has no power, would have to move up another weight class to 168, and is already considered by many as the best boxer in the world overall – what’s not to lose there for Joe? A win over Wright may just earn the Welshman a spot at the top of the pound for pound rankings before he hangs up his gloves. It could happen folks – who’d of thought it just a year ago?
American boxing media’s nationalist (racist?) bias
Lately everybody’s been beating up on the heavyweights; the fans, the media, even the networks. At first I defended the big boys and chose to view the positive side of things, but soon found myself bashing them as well. There hasn’t been much to cheer about since Vitali Klitschko retired, and I was about to give up on the division completely after watching the Rahman-Toney pose fest a while back. But then two great performances by fighters from the former Soviet Union woke me out of my coma and showed me the bigger picture. The heavyweight division isn’t as bad as the American boxing media is making it out to be – it’s just changing the way it looks and sounds. The boxing media, and fans alike, really need to overcome their prejudices and open their mind to see what’s in front of them, and what’s to come…
Take a look at my personal heavyweight rankings:
1 Wladimir Klitschko
2 Serguei Lyakhovich
3 Lamon Brewster
4 Hasim Rahman
5 Samuel Peter
6 Chris Byrd
7 James Toney
8 Calvin Brock
9 Nikolay Valuev
10 John Ruiz
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11 Shannon Briggs
12 Sultan Ibragimov
13 Larry Donald
14 Oleg Maskaev
15 Danny Williams
16 Ruslan Chagaev
17 Timor Ibragimov
18 Luan Krasiqi
19 Dominick Guinn
20 Ray Austin
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Notice something? My two best heavies are from Eastern Europe, and so are eight of my top twenty, with MANY more on their way up. Look at the best prospects that America currently has to offer and compare them to their European counterparts, there’s no contest as to who has more potential. A look at the current amateur scene shows an even wider margin in talent, dedication and skill. Why this sudden barrage of Eastern European heavyweights? While many prejudiced American sports writers would have you believe it’s due to top athletes from the states no longer competing in boxing, and there is some truth to that, I argue it’s due to the fact that the playing field is now even. For decades fighters from the former Soviet Union and other communist countries were not allowed to compete professionally outside of their homeland. With the downfall of the communist USSR professional boxing has been flooded with many hungry young men from the region seeking a better life for themselves. Boxing has always been a way out of poverty, and a sport where only the toughest survive. While today’s American urban youth like to scream that their life is the hardest and their neighborhoods the roughest – they’ve never been to Belarus! Look, I come from Detroit – undoubtedly one of the toughest, meanest cities in the states, and it just doesn’t compare to many of the ghettos of Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia. It should come as no surprise that fighters from these regions of the world are now dominating the heavier, middle and lighter weight classes, respectively. Look for this trend to grow over the coming decades as these fighters continue to improve and “learn the ropes” on boxing’s big stage. As far as the big men go, well the American sports media might need to let go of their preconceived notion as to what the heavyweight champion is “supposed” to look like.
Tough Guys and Gentlemen
What is America’s obsession with tough guy athletes? It seems that for years the typical American boxing fan seems to be drawn to arrogant tough guys who claim to be from “the mean streets” and seem to have a total lack of respect for the sport and anybody other than themselves. Case and point – why is James Toney a more popular American heavyweight than Chris Byrd? Look at their heavyweight records and there is no comparison as to who has done more. Byrd is a true class act, a real good guy in the sport, and deserves more credit than he gets (hopefully he moves down to Cruiserweight and makes some noise there before he retires). James Toney is often blunt as congress is clueless, and the way he turned up badly out of shape for his fight against Hasim Rahman, was an embarrassment to the sport, in my opinion. He’s not shy about giving his comments about any subject, either. After being given a gift draw with Hasim Rahman (in a fight he deserved to lose), at the post fight presser, Toney ranted that “Ya’ll keep trying to make a white champion, but it will never happen”, “Ya’ll keep trying to build up these German and Russian guys, but they can’t fight”, “Ya’ll need to quit that” and so on.
He made sure to mention that as “Afro-Americans”, Rahman and he were “real” fighters. So if I’m to follow Toney’s logic, you have to be of that particular demographic to be a “real” heavyweight fighter? Problem is many American fans and boxing media alike seem to agree with that assessment based on their lack of regard and respect for the division’s Eastern European big men. In a recent interview in a popular American Hip Hop magazine, he proudly proclaimed that “Black men are the sh*t, that’s why white men want to be us, and why white women want to f*ck us”. Look, it’s good to be proud and all but this is over the line in my opinion, and comments like this would not be tolerated from any fighter of European extraction. Can somebody say “double standard”? It really makes you wonder…
A loss is just a loss
People, it’s OK to lose, it’s human! For some reason the boxing media loves to write a guy off when he has a loss, especially heavyweights. In baseball, basketball and most other sports you can lose tonight and be back on the field tomorrow with everything back to normal. Look at baseball, you have spring training, then 162 regular season games, then the playoffs (which consist of 7-game series) – in other words one loss means nothing. In boxing, if you have an off night and get beat (which can happen to anybody), your world can come crashing down all of the sudden like an earthquake. Example: even though Wladimir Klitschko has the best resume amongst all of his peers in the heavyweight division, many out there just can’t shut up about his three losses. Yes, he lost to Ross Purity, Corrie Sanders and Lamon Brewster, but here’s a quick newsflash for all of you who won’t stop reminding us of these three fights…
Lennox Lewis was knocked out by Hasim Rahman and Oliver McCall, both of whom have done nothing since (neither are making anybody’s “All Time Greats” list). He retired after squeaking out a victory on a technicality – a fight that he was clearly losing.
Evander Holyfield went 1-1-1 in three fights with John Ruiz, whom I think we can all agree isn’t going down as an all time great on anybody’s list. In 48 pro fights, Holyfield has only 25 knock outs – that’s a KO percentage of 52%.
Mike Tyson (whom I believe was an overrated champion) beat a 39 year old Larry Holmes, that’s about it. The only other all time greats he faced (Holyfield and Lewis) beat him in dominating fashion. Any questions?
I can go on and on here, back to Ali, Louis and Dempsey, and even further from there. My point,? Get off a guy’s a*s just because he’s had a few bad nights. Judge a fighter on his career from start to finish, not just the low points.