06.11.06 – By David Lahr: IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko defends his newly won title against Calvin Brock (29-0, 22 KO’s) on Saturday night at the Madison Square Garden, in New York. Klitschko, one of four heavyweight title holders, and considered by many to be the best of the bunch, still has a lot to prove to earn that claim in many boxing fan’s perceptions. Although, by beating undefeated Calvin Brock, a fighter that has largely been untested, I don’t figure Wladimir is going to be changing many people’s minds about him. Obviously, it’s going to take more than beating the weak-punching Brock to erase the image of Wladimir Klitschko being viciously knocked out Corrie Sanders in 2003, and Lamon Brewster in April 2004. In both cases, Wladimir was exposed as having a weak chin and poor recuperative powers when hurt.
If it were just those two fights, then I could possibly blame it on fatigue or the fact that he was not ready for the Sanders, a quick southpaw fighter with devastating power. However, Wladimir was also knocked down by Davarryl Williamson in their bout in October 2004, and against Samuel Peter, Wladimir was knocked down 3 times and close to being stopped.. I think you get the picture. Given Wladimir’s trouble against big punchers, it’s hard for me to see him anything more than a temporary champion, one that it is clearly not the best of the current heavyweight champions, not even close.
Let me just add that, although it’s nice that Wladimir was able to defeat Chris Byrd to win the IBF heavyweight title, it really doesn’t say much for Wladimir’s perceived courage. The reasons are obvious. Byrd, 35, was the weakest puncher of the heavyweights, making him a little threat to knocking out Wladimir. More than that, Wladimir had already beaten Byrd in October 2000, easily defeating him in 12-rounds. To me, it seemed as if Wladimir had opted for the easy route to the heavyweight title, rather than facing someone tough, like Nikolay Valuev, or Hasim Rahman (at the time, still a heavyweight champion). Instead, it just looks bad to me, as Wladimir was carefully avoiding being tested by a heavy puncher.
With Calvin Brock, a fighter dubbed “The boxing Banker), what we have is essentially, a somewhat harder puncher than Chris Byrd, but without the skills. It’s not terribly surprising, that no one is giving Brock much of a chance against Wladimir, simply because of the fact that Brock doesn’t have the one thing that can beat Wladimir, namely, power. It’s going to be hard, if not impossible, for Brock to compete with Wladimir’s punching power and heavy attack oriented fighting style. In a way, almost as if Brock will be going into a war loaded with only cap gun. The outcome is clear: Wladimir will destroy Brock in 5 rounds or less.