By Jim Dower: So far, IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (49-3, 44 KOs) has failed to ignite the interest of the fans as a whole, many who see him as a fighter with a questionable chin, and a soft resume littered with mostly unknown fighters. That’s likely not to change come February 23rd, when Klitschko meets up with WBO heavyweight champion Sultan Ibragimov (22-0-1, 17 KOs), who is a fighter mostly only known to boxing insiders. Through no fault of his own, Wladimir is fighting in a time that there are few appealing heavyweights with which for him to earn fame and carve out a name for himself.
Perhaps the best jab, right hand and left hook in boxing, Wladimir has the offensive tools that set him apart from the other heavyweights, and make him an intimidating opponent. However, when you add in his 6’6″ 244 lbs size, it makes him seem even more dangerous. Despite all this, Klitschko has seemed to lag behind many of the fighters in the smaller weight classes, for example, Miguel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Oscar De La Hoya, Bernard Hopkins, to name just a few of them. What Wladimir appears to be missing, though, is a career-defining opponent, someone that is considered an incredible fighter in their own right.
With the examples of Cotto, De La Hoya, Mayweather and Hopkins, each one of them have had multiple fights against highly skilled opponents, one that they had to struggle with which to defeat. Sadly, the same can’t be said about Wladimir, for he’s fought mostly obscure fighters, few of which can be considered heavyweight champion material. Even then, Klitschko has been knocked out three times to fighters that are considered by many fans to be journeymen at best. And, unlike former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, Klitschko has been reluctant to fight rematches with the fighters that have beaten him.
Sure, he recently stopped Lamon Brewster in the 6th round last year, a fighter that previously knocked Wladimir out several years ago, but that was the first time that Wladimir had chose to give a rematch to a fighter that had beaten him. I’m not sure if he’s aware of the fact that many Americans, and fans from other countries for that matter, tend to expect a boxer to at least try and get revenge for past defeats.
However, in Wladimir’s case, he’s only attempted it once, and even then it was against a fighter that was coming off a year layoff after a serious injury to his eye which required surgery. When you factor all that in, it adds to the lack of interest in Wladimir, I think. It isn’t just his lack of opponents, although that makes it worse, it’s his shocking losses and his tendency to avoid getting revenge. When a fighter fails to get revenge, they become marred by the lose, as the fans generally have a hard time forgetting it.
In choosing Ibragimov, Wladimir may get another win, but I doubt highly that it will change many people’s opinions about Wladimir. For one, Ibragimov isn’t the type of opponent to get people excited about if Wladimir beats him, as most people see Ibragimov as one of the weaker heavyweight champions. Wladimir could beat another twenty Ibragimov-type heavyweights, and still the fans won’t care. Why should they?