By Scott Gilfoid: In an article today, World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko and his brother Wladimir, who holds both the IBF and WBO belts, complained that WBA title holder Nikolay Valuev’s promoters are preventing him from facing them, despite Valuev himself wanting the fight. However, it’s hard not to see why the promoters wouldn’t want the brothers to fight Valuev, because each of the would very likely knock Valuev out and grab his WBA title long with it.
The Klitschko’s have a goal of having all the heavyweight titles to themselves and only need the WBA title to complete their collection but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen now or ever. Instead, they need to move on, fight their next opponents Juan Carlos Gomez and perhaps David Haye, then look at fighting each other.
The problem is, both Klitschko brothers made a promise to their mother that they would never fight each other. However, it’s time that they think hard about breaking that promise and fighting each other because there isn’t enough opponents out there for each of them to make more than a small amount of money against.
The 7-foot Valuev would be a good – not great opponent financially – but that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen because his promoters don’t want to lose their control over the WBA title. I don’t blame them, because I wouldn’t want Valuev to fight the Klitschko brothers either if he belonged to me.
Why lose the title for a chicken feed when you can keep Valuev winning fights, making good money each time out and string it a long over a couple of years rather than trying to cash out by putting him in with the Klitschko brothers in what would be an almost certain loss for Valuev. Forget that. The Klitschko brothers, if they want a big money fight so badly, should look at each other instead.
That is where the money’s at and they only have to do it once. If I was them, I’d sit down with momma Klitschko and lay down the law in dollars and cents, and let her know how the money would be helping their children have a better life. In the end, I’m almost positive that she would see reason and give in. Without a fight against each other, there’s only Chris Arreola and David Haye, neither of which will be near to being a mega fight.
Haye could have helped the process by fighting a few good heavyweights and making a name for himself in the heavyweight division but he doesn’t seem interested in doing that. In his big chance to try and impress fans, Haye took an easy fight against journeyman Monte Barrett and looked less than unbeatable in defeating him.
The fight did nothing to quiet critics of Haye, who have doubts whether he can handle a heavyweight punch. With his lack of experience – and size – holding him back, his fight with Wladimir will likely not bring in the kind of big money that the brothers are hoping for. Clearly, it will be the best that they’ve had in quite some time but nothing like the money they could get if they fought each other.
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