By Aaron Klein: It took only one fight, a dull, uninspiring 12-round unanimous decision over Sultan Ibragimov, which appeared to erase three good years of performances in a single night for IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (50-3, 44 KOs). This Saturday night, Wladimir hopes to quiet his critics with an impressive win over challenger Tony Thompson (31-1, 19 KOs) at the Color Line Arena, Altona, in Hamburg, Germany.
Throughout his career, perhaps starting with his loss to Ross Puritty in 1998, Wladimir has taken a heap of abuse from boxing fans, which enjoy pointing out his problems with taking on fighters with big power, and his often safety-first style of fighting. It seems that the fans aren’t really happy unless Wladimir is slugging it out, letting his hands go non-stop like in his rough and tumble fights with Lamon Brewster in 2004 and his war with Samuel Peter in 2005.
To be sure, there haven’t been too many fights in which Wladimir has fought on the edge, for he’s always fought in a very calculated, and in control manner, never letting his emotions get a hold of him. He does fight with a certain amount of cautiousness, which makes him a little less risk taking than what fans would obviously like to see. I’m not sure if that’s because he’s over-thinking his strategy in the ring, perhaps maybe overestimating his opponents’ power, or a case of a lack of self-confidence.
Whatever the case, Wladimir has rarely fought well enough to please the fans, nor well enough to win over many new boxing fans to his side. Although he says that it doesn’t bother him, the constant criticism from fans, but I think it does. He refers to it all the time in his interviews, laughing much of the time, but he appears to be putting on a front, trying to show that it’s not getting to him. The problem is, I’m not sure that Wladimir will ever be able to please fans by going all out and fighting all out like heavyweights of the past, such as Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis.
While Wladimir has the offensive tools to fight in this manner, and succeed, he seems to be held back by reservations, like he’s thinking about what could happen to him if he started throwing shots with abandon. As such, it effectively changes his offensive style, making him a boring, but effective, fighter. You can’t argue with his success; He’s beaten every opponent he’s faced in the past four years, defeating eight fighters during that period.
However, for him to be more accepted by boxing fans, I’m afraid that he’s going to have to go back to how he previously used to fight earlier in his career, a time when he seemed to fighting more on instincts compared to how he fights now. Back then, Wladimir would usually go right after his opponents from the opening bell, ripping into them with left hooks and straight rights, literally pounding them in submission.
Very few heavyweights could stand up to this kind of attack for long without being taken out. In the case of Puritty, Corrie Sanders and Brewster, Wladimir found a handful of opponents that could stand up to this kind of attack, having a good chin and even better power, and respond in kind with their own big shots. Wladimir was then shown to be a fighter that could dish it out and not take it, reminding one of other big knockout artists of the past like Julian Jackson, to name just one example.
In order to adapt and learn how to defeat fighters in the class of Brewster and Sanders, Wladimir changed his boxing style completely, going from an aggressive offensive minded fighter to that of a boxer/puncher, with most of his concentration being put on boxing his opponent.
With the help of new trainer, Emanuel Steward, Wladimir completely revamped his offense, gearing down several notches, and making himself almost a traditional fighter, in the Muhammed Ali mode. It’s worked well, but at a huge cost; Many boxing fans no longer enjoy watching Wladimir fight, and heap tremendous amounts of scorn on him whenever his name is mentioned in boxing forums on the internet.
Obviously, Wladimir doesn’t like it, would like to change it, but doesn’t seem to know how. Like a person that has lost flexibility, Wladimir doesn’t seem to know how to turn back on his offense to the way it once was. Physically, I believe he certainly can, but mentally he seems to be held back by some governing control mechanism.
Normally, a fighter that is a boxer/puncher is able to box when the need arises, using their jab to break their opponent down bit by bit, until finally when they see the moment arise that they can jump all over them and take them out. In the case of Wladimir, however, he seems stuck on the boxing mode, and isn’t able to turn back on his offense, even when it’s painfully obvious that his opponent is ready to be taken out.