By Scott Gilfoid: In an article in The Ring Magazine, former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis says he thinks the Klitschko brothers should fight. “I understand their mother doesn’t want to see them fight, but this isn’t tennis. They knew that when they got into boxing…In real life brothers fight all the time…Anyway you look at it, brothers get into it. Brothers fight. Why not get paid for it?” I’ve been saying the same thing for a long time. The Klitschko brothers need to stand up on their hind legs and make this fight happen.
They need to sit down with momma Klitschko pronto and explain things to her. Seriously, both Klitschko brothers are now in their 30s and they need to let their mother know the importance of such a fight while at the same time letting her know that the loser won’t be destroyed or badly hurt. Lewis is right.
Brothers fight all the time. My older brothers used to kick my backside from the age of seven until my late teens and I never held it against him. It’s the way families go. I’d probably still be fighting him if I saw him more. Boxing is better, though, because you’ve got a referee, mouth and more protection because the fighter is wearing gloves.
Look at it this way: The Klitschko brothers are likely not going to have a big fight in their careers. Not one. David Haye will probably be knocked out by Nikolay Valuev in November, and will be tainted badly in the process. A fight against Valuev won’t interest American audiences regardless of how badly Valuev destroys Haye, meaning that the Klitschko brothers won’t be able to make a ton of money against the Russian giant Valuev.
Likewise, a fight against Chris Arreola, who Vitali is trying to fight next, won’t likely do much in terms of PPV, if it does end up on PPV. For the Klitschkos to make a ton of money, they need an opponent with a ton of talent and a lot of charisma.
Unfortunately, there’s no fighters right now that fit that description. Haye has charisma, but he hasn’t backed it up in the ring and with him backing out on the Klitschko brothers twice in the past month, it leaves the impression that Haye isn’t the real deal.
Besides that, Haye has only fought twice as a heavyweight and didn’t look good in his fight with journeyman Monte Barrett, a fight in which Haye appeared to be knocked down in the 5th round and needed a lot of time to recover. Haye could be an opponent that would in theory bring in a huge payday for the Klitschkos, but Haye would have to beat better fighters besides Valuev for that to happen.
As it is, it seems like Haye is cherry picking his opponents. First it was Barrett rather than someone tougher like Kevin Johnson, Odlanier Solis or Eddie Chambers, and now it’s Valuev. Solis already stopped Haye in an amateur bout in 2001.
There’s really no other opponents for the Klitschko brothers to fight at this time, so they might as well fight each other. As for momma Klitschko, they just need to impress upon her their predicament. Both fighters are in their 30s, fighting in one of the weakest eras of heavyweight boxing in some time and have little choice but to fight each other if they want to make huge money. So they either need to get permission for the fight or just go ahead anyway and make the fight happen.
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