By Mark Workman

After an eleven month layoff, WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko was scheduled to defend his title for the second time on November 12 against Hasim Rahman; but the fight has now been postponed for the fourth time due to another reported Klitschko training injury.

I’m now starting to wonder if it’s time for Vitali Klitschko to just pass the mantle on to his younger brother, Wladimir, and call it a day. You can’t call yourself the “people’s champion” and never defend your title.

In a division fraught with pretenders and three other champions claiming the throne, Vitali Klitschko carries on his shoulders a burden of proof that he truly is the real heavyweight champion of the world and self-proclaimed “people’s champion.”

We now stand waiting to see the proverbial proof; but will we ever see it?

In my mind, there is no true heavyweight champion right now. There hasn’t been one for a long time. Only when these four champions fight each other and give us complete title unification of all four belts, will there finally be a bona fide heavyweight champion of the world.

Does Vitali Klitschko have what it takes to accomplish this mission and become the savior of the heavyweight division? I’m now starting to have my doubts.

Vitali Klitschko was born on July 19, 1971 in the Belovodsk settlement of Kyrghyzstan, but fights out of Hamburg, Germany while also living in Los Angeles, CA. A former four-time professional kick boxer and three-time Ukrainian heavyweight champion, Klitschko has amassed a professional boxing record of 35 wins and 2 losses with 34 knockouts. His two losses came at the hands of retired heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis and current IBF titlist Chris Byrd.

In April of 2000, Vitali suffered a shoulder injury in his fight against Chris Byrd and quit on his stool after the ninth round; and then in June of 2003, he lost again to Lennox Lewis when the fight was stopped in the sixth round due to a severe cut over Vitali’s left eye, caused in the third round by a big Lewis right hand. Vitali had suffered numerous cuts in the fight, and his face was a bloody red mask by the end.

There’s no denying that Vitali has a huge heart and solid chin, considering the savage beating he took from an out-of-shape Lennox Lewis who came into that fight weighing 256 ½ pounds, the heaviest of his career. Lewis’ second highest weight, 253 ½ pounds, was his KO loss to Hasim Rahman. And even though Vitali gave as much of a beating to Lewis as he received, I still wonder how that fight might’ve ended had it not been stopped on a cut and Lewis had come into the fight in shape.

Lewis had originally been scheduled to fight Kirk Johnson, but Johnson pulled out of the fight after suffering a torn left pectoral muscle in training. Klitschko was scheduled to fight on the same card against absolutely unknown human sacrifice Cedric Boswell.

When Johnson pulled out of the fight, the decision was made to match Lewis and Klitschko together on two week’s notice, resulting in a fight that was absolute warfare from start to finish. Coming into the fight, Lewis had not fought in twelve months since destroying Iron Mike Tyson, knocking him out in the eighth round. Klitschko’s last fight was against Larry Donald seven months earlier, knocking Donald out in the tenth.

Vitali then won the WBC belt in a fight for the vacant title against Corrie Sanders in April of 2004, stopping him in the eighth round.

Today, after fighting only three times in the past two and a half years since the Lewis fight, against Corrie Sanders, Danny Williams and Kirk Johnson — Vitali was scheduled to make his return to the ring against Hasim Rahman on November 12 and hopefully begin a serious quest to unify the heavyweight title. But now the fight is off again for the fourth time.

Promoter Bob Arum had been spinning so much yarn promoting this fight against Rahman that he could knit new winter sweaters for everyone in Las Vegas. But the plain fact is this Rahman fight meant little in the big scheme of things and was nothing more than a tune-up fight for Klitschko to bang off a year’s worth of ring rust and make eight millions dollars. Suspicious minds are wondering again if this training injury is real.

To hear Bob Arum and Top Rank’s Lee Samuels this past week refer to Rahman as the “champion” and this fight “the most significant fight in the heavyweight division in many years” was not only ludicrous but so deceptive to the public that it was almost criminal. I wonder how many people would’ve actually shelled out $49.95 for this ill-fated fight, anyway.

I appreciate the fact that Bob Arum is jumping back into the heavyweight picture; and if he’s going to actually make moves to unify the title—something Don King seems unwilling or incapable of doing—then I welcome him with open but wary arms. But deceiving the public into thinking that they were going to see a fight between two heavyweight champions was not only false but close to being an outright sham, meaningless Rahman interim title or not.

Considering Rahman’s most recent snoring win against Monte Barrett, I don’t think anyone in their right mind gave Hasim anything more than a puncher’s chance against Klitschko; but these are heavyweights and one good punch is all it takes.

 

Remembering the fact that Rahman’s biggest win was knocking out Lennox Lewis in April of 2001, we know that he can punch; but we also need to remember that Lewis came back seven months later and destroyed Hasim in their rematch, flattening him in the fourth round. I just cannot picture “The Rock” (41-5-1, 33 KOs) as the future undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, taking into account his roller coaster ride of good and bad fights, successes and failures.

Bob Arum has recently suggested in the press that should Vitali Klitschko beat Rahman his next fight should be against WBO champion Lamon Brewster, whose last two fights have ended in exciting knockouts for Brewster. In hearing these words, hopefully Bob Arum is going to push for having these four champions fight each other to unify the title. But please remember that Don King controls the other three champions, including Rahman, so dream on and on.

Seeing both Klitschko brothers defeat the other three current title-holders will certainly spawn the Siamese twin heavyweight champion that I think lurks in the distance, a goal for brothers Klitschko but one that is certainly not good for the heavyweight division. There’s just too much potential for behind-the-scenes manipulation from the people who control the Klitschkos.

Vitali and Wladimir have both made it clear that they’ll never fight each other, so an undisputed champion is clearly out of the question as long as both of them wear championship belts at the same time. And even if they did fight, it would certainly rival Chris Byrd vs. DaVarryl Williamson as the “Most Boring Fight of the Year,” so it’s not something we should hope to see, anyway.

In my last article, Lamon Brewster; America’s Heavyweight Hope, I spoke of how I believe Lamon Brewster may be the only current champion capable of defeating Vitali Klitschko and unifying the title. I received numerous emails from readers who felt that I had “dismissed” Vitali Klitschko and was not giving him his due.

I like Vitali Klitschko. The man’s got heart and can fight; and I want to give him his due. But he’s got to earn it first. I’m not going to call him the best just because he says it’s so. He’s got to prove it by defeating the other belt-holders and unifying the title.

I’m not anti-Klitschko but merely more pro-Brewster because of his exciting do-or-die nature and will to win. After all, he’s been fighting lately. Vitali has not fought in nearly a year and now we’re not sure when he’s going to fight again.

Vitali Klitschko has lost to the two biggest fighters he’s ever faced in Chris Byrd and Lennox Lewis, and his two biggest wins are against Larry Donald and Kirk Johnson, two fighters that are not the division’s very best, now or then. And I’m tired of hearing about how and why he lost those two fights. They’re losses on the record books and that’s that.

Vitali likes to call himself the “people’s champion,” but except for hardcore boxing fans no one knows who he is, nor does the general public know who the other three belt-holders are. The hardcore boxing fans who will read this article certainly know who Vitali Klitschko, Lamon Brewster, Chris Byrd and John Ruiz are, just as I do. But the hardcore boxing fans are here to stay.

For this sport to endure and regain the bigger popularity it once had, we need back the boxing defectors who have grown tired of the sport for many reasons that are truly valid and some unfair. And this fight “postponement” doesn’t help matters. But for whatever their reasons for defecting, we need them back. It will only make the sport bigger and benefit everyone involved.

I don’t see how Chris Byrd or John Ruiz will ever be truly recognized as the real heavyweight champion of the world unless they unify the title, and I just don’t see that happening for either of them at this point in their careers. And even if either one of them somehow did accomplish this monumental feat, their styles are so boring we’d have the first heavyweight champion with the capability of putting the entire world to sleep.

I don’t mean to disparage either one of these men. They’re both nice guys and have their positive attributes, but reality is reality and we cannot change that. How long can John Ruiz and Chris Byrd continue to fight in low-money title fights that mean nothing at all just to continue protecting their pieces of the title? And how long can Vitali Klitschko keep fighting the Hasim Rahman’s of the division?

On December 17, 6’ 2”, 241-pound WBA belt-holder John Ruiz will actually go to Berlin, Germany to fight the 7’ tall, 335-pound Russian “Beast from the East” Nicolay Valuev (42-0, 31 KOs) in a David and Goliath freak show.

Is this the low level to which the heavyweight title is now being reduced just so John Ruiz can get paid? Valuev knocks out a done Clifford Etienne and barely beats Larry Donald in a questionable decision and he gets a shot at the WBA title. Come on!

Until the day comes that there is one national or international sanctioning body to effectively and fairly govern the sport of boxing, the least we can hope for is some realistic governing from the four sanctioning bodies that currently bungle and make a mockery of the sport.

How much longer must the boxing fans of the world tolerate the incessant politics and rankings shenanigans of the ABC organizations before they finally begin doing everything in their “powers” to give us a bona fide heavyweight champion? Enough is enough from all of them.

Frankly, I think title unification bouts against Lamon Brewster and Vitali Klitschko are Ruiz and Byrd’s last hopes of any big-money fights that mean anything and certainly their only hope of ending their careers with any kind of respect from the fans. You’d think they’d rather risk their belts in one last big-money fight and go out with a bang and some honor, rather than finally lose one day against journeyman fighters and be remembered that way.

I believe boxing fans would finally give them the respect they seek going out on their shields fighting their hearts out in a big unification bout that not only gives us an undisputed champion but shows that they care a bit more about the future of the sport than just their wallets.

When is Don King finally going to do what’s best for the fans that have made him rich and start giving us the unification fights that we demand? How long must we sit by patiently waiting and hoping that the day will finally come when these fighters stop protecting their little pieces of the fragmented title, avoiding each other at all cost, and doing nothing but blaming their promoters and television networks for the reasons why they can’t fight each other and give us an undisputed champion once again?

It’s time for the four men who wear these belts and call themselves champions to start thinking of the fans who keep boxing and THEM alive and give us the fights that we demand. And by doing this, more of the general public might actually come to know their names and become interested enough to hop back on the boxing bandwagon, something that is sorely needed.

If the four heavyweight champions don’t see the writing on the wall written in low pay-per-view buys for their fights, then they never will. Fans across the planet are getting tired of paying for ridiculous and meaningless fights that do nothing to unify the title. This Klitschko vs. Rahman fight should’ve been a free HBO fight, yet we were expected to purchase it on pay-per-view.

Just as this article goes to press, Don King is now proclaiming Hasim Rahman the “undisputed WBC heavyweight champion” and lobbying hard with the WBC to see Vitali Klitschko stripped of his title and it placed in Rahman’s hands, as per the WBC “rules.” King also says he soon plans to stage a heavyweight tournament to give us an undisputed heavyweight champion. I’ll believe it when I see it. Something stinks with this entire fiasco.

Bob Arum can continue to call Vitali Klitschko the “people’s champion” all he wants, but until Vitali fights and defeats the other three belt-holders to unify the title and then continues to fight the division’s very best, those words aren’t worth the breath it took to spit them out.

It’s now time for Vitali Klitschko to stop telling us he’s the true heavyweight champion of the world and start proving it by fighting the other three champions and mopping up the mess that is the heavyweight crown. There was once a day when the title of heavyweight champion meant something and was a symbol of pride, honor and accomplishment. Today it’s nothing more than a name badge.

Vitali Klitschko, with maybe the exception of his brother Wladimir, is probably the most promising heavyweight in the world today. And it’s because of how far I think he can go in the division that I hold him to such a high standard and level of expectation and extreme sense of responsibility to the sport. But if he can’t seem to find his way into the ring to fight, talent means nothing?

He has to fight the best out there. He has to unify the title. He has to prove so much more.

Vitali Klitschko seems content to allow the boxing press to prove that he’s the true “people’s champion,” but the burden of proof weighs heavily on his shoulders not ours.

For comments about this article, you can email Mark Workman at mark@markworkman.com .