Lewis: “The Klitschko Brothers Should Fight” – News
July 29th, 2009
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.
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.
Tags: 32 Responses to “Lewis: “The Klitschko Brothers Should Fight” – News”
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Haye will beat valuev firstly!! Secondly if the Lewis vs Vitali fight was left to carry on Lewis would have knocked vitali out!! Watch round 6, vitali was holding on for dear life. No doubt the klit bros rule the division at the moment but who’s to say 6 months down the line its Haye vs Arreola to unify the division?? Stranger things have happened
If i was your brother id give you a can of ass whooping everyday lol. Your a joke Haye will bang Valuev although he may struggle against the klitschko’s stop smoking crack before writing articles lol
I say to Vitaliy and Wladimir : be and do what mother said to you !!!!!!!!!!!!! Mothers words are holy words!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Mother knows what she does for her sons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dont listen to anybody.Everybody who hates or doesnt like you wanna make big trouble for you.
Yes brettchko lets put you beween them
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
hopkins move up? pass that joint instead of blogging… jones relied on steroids and a weak titleholder, he never fought a real champion. throwing him or hopkins in with either bro would be close to manslaughter.
Well Vitali is married , but I like where you are going.
if we or someone could get a woman between them then we could have a fight!!
I feel a little sorry for this author now, I thought he didn’t know anything about boxing because he just couldn’t afford to pay fo rthe fights or something but it was actually because of domestic violence.
Stay strong Scott, I will look up some support lines for you!
andrew i think arreola would never make it with neither the two giants because short guy,and you know that vitali or wald would with only with the jab so i consider hopkins someone tall to face them
While I would like to watch the fight I think it’s rich coming from Lewis. He had a close shave and he knew it, there was no way he was going to risk being knocked out by Vitali.
As Ukansodoff says Tennis is not a sport where you deliberately inflict pain upon your opponent.
Lee City and United hate eachother! Poor comparison!
You dont punch each other in the face, ribs and guts with all the power you can muster in Tennis.
If they did id actually watch it.
good lennox lewis these two should fight, they fight boring so why dont they fight each other. in tennis the william sisters allways face each other.
Joe says he would like to see Hopkins move up to heavyweight and fight the Klitschkos . Don’t think so bro !!
Go look on youtube , Hopkins describes the Klitschkos as opponents he would never like to face.
For now Arreola and Chambers are better than nothing
Scott if I was your big bro Id beat your face in on a regular basis too
ESPN seems to think Eddie Chambers has charisma as they are spotlighting him this Friday. Although “Fast” is confident as so many others were that he can conquer Wladimir, he isn’t the “Fastest”, the more experienced or the harder hitter pound for pound. But, he does have fire in him. This will be the Fight to watch! I will give Eddie Chambers one thing, he does give mean looks when posing in his boxing shorts and seems to take boxing seriously. However, to face a Klitschko is a whole different ballgame, they are among the two greatest boxers of our time.
This is all just another diguised article to rip into Haye and anyone else British FAIL GILFOID
I can completely understand if they do not want to fight eachother – I wouldnt want to fight my brother, however the decision should not lie in their hands.
This is a sport – Venus has to face Serena at tennis, Manchester united have to play Manchester city at football. They cant pick and choose who they fight – the boxing board should make this a mandatory
how will haye get beating by beast from east? no power for his size and no speed scott ur a knob
on the other note, if you wanna pay for 12 rounds of “jab vs jab” and more jab then feel free borin fight
They are the best 2 in the division, they do hold 3 of the 4 belts, and want that 4th, they do want unification but they are brothers, a close family and have promised thier mother.
Honouring her wishes is a far more important to them than facing each other. That alone is enough for me.
The only way this fight would be a good one is if there was some real anamosity between them and there isnt.
But sayin that they have mentioned if their mother gave them her blessing they would consider it.
Cutman. I agree. How can you phyce yourself and train months in preperation to destroy your own brother? Lewis get rea. The Klitsh have valiues.
Coming from the man that chose not to fight Vitali Klitschko this sounds somehow strange indeed. Brothers may fight in the Lewis world but the Klitschko brothers are made of better stuff, repecting the wishes of their family is part of that, something possibly foreign to the likes of Lewis.
Everyone on this site seems to think Wlad is better than Vitali. Trust me, he’s not.
i would like to see bernard hopkins move up in heavyweight like roy jones did,he would make millions of dollars.I would like to see he fight the klitschko brothers that would be a sellout crowd in US or overseas(think about it hopkins)
Have some respect here, if the most important person in the world to most men says NO, then NO it is.
Do we really need to hear from Lewis who left Boxing a little to hasty for my liking. As George Foreman said at ringside that night “There has to be a rematch” I for one think that fight was one of the most exciting, and a feather in the cap of Vitali. the crowd loved it.
valuev knock haye out bhave ur self u idiot lol
I just think Lewis wants somebody to beat Vitali Klitschko , something which he didn’t really do .
(It was a very unlucky punch , where the lace section of the glove caught him)
Wladimir is the only person that can probably beat Vitali.
Lennox Lewis should fight the Klitschko’s instead of his thoughts on brothers destroying each other.
Vitali Klitschko would have knocked Lewis silly if their last fight was not prematurely halted by the referee.
Wladimir Klitschko would outthink him and skill wise, knock him out cold.
I pnched my brother in the face once. It was ace they should try it.
And this could eventually put an end to the argument that has been dogging their relationship for many years. Who does the rocking horse belong to?
I think it would probably be the worst fight ever in the history of boxing . Each time one of them connected they would probably cry.
I mean seriously, I kick my brothers arse in tennis all the time but hitting him would be like punching myself in the face.
Having said all that if they weren’t brothers I would pick Wladimir on points , he is the better boxer.
Are you crazy? There is something terribly unsettling about this idea. Vitali and Wladimir please do not fight.
If Vitali let his hands go, he would win by KO – but that wouldn’t happen.
Pointless fight, because people would always say that both men were holding something back – which they would naturally do. In that situation, Wlad would win by jab jab jabbing… and boring everybody to death.
good article. damn right they need to fight. that chageav fight was a joke.and the peter fight. they need a COMPETITIVE FIGHT. them 2 at it. Would be boring though.
Vitali on points.
Ps. if they did fight they wud agree not to hurt each other and do nothing but jab jab jab. maybe i dont wanna see it after all. lol.