The Klitschkos with no one to fight

By Jamie Eskdale - 05/05/2013 - Comments

wlad#4By Jamie Eskdale: I will try and examine other issues affecting boxing. Anyone who read my last article will know that I think boxing is currently in a precarious position, we have a situation where 4 governing bodies, promoters and television networks more or less run the sport.

Our Heavyweight division is in quite a dire state. Recently though on various boxing forums and websites(including this one) I have seen people talking it up. I think the general consensus is the Klitschko brothers are nearing the end, wait until their retired and it will breathe new life into the division.

So in effect people are saying take the 2 best fighters out of the division and it’ll make it better, hmmm, not quite sure I follow that train of thought. Anyway people are entitled to their opinions and opinions are what make sites like this one so good.

My idea would be much more radical, perhaps just down right silly but why can’t we see WBA, WBO AND IBF Heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko fight against his brother and current WBC strap holder Vitali!? Well for a whole host of reasons it would seem. The main one being that they just point blank refuse to even acknowledge that it could happen.

It would be an absolute huge fight, Champion v Champion, brother v brother, 2 worlds colliding.It would be huge with even non boxing fans excited by it. Ok I understand that 2 brothers don’t want to fight against each other, it’s perfectly reasonable to accept that they wouldn’t be comfortable knocking lumps out of each other.

Forget that though for a second and imagine they were forced to, it would be massive. But the nature of boxing has never made this a realistic possibility. With there being 4 governing bodies. Vitali is only ranked by the WBC and the WBC don’t rank Wladimir making it very convenient for them not to fight each other.
Which brings me back to my point about 1 governing body.Or at least a body to oversee the current setup. Making the best fight the best and if they refuse then it should be a case of bye bye.

Last night we had the charade of Wladimir knocking out a badly overmatched Pianeta. Now I don’t blame the brothers for picking easy money fights, it is after all their right to try and make as much money as they can. It is the system that is in place that allows mismatches and cherry picking of opponents. This situation certain wouldn’t occur in any other sport.

We have governing bodies running the sport like it’s their play thing where all they seem to be interested in is making money. I understand business is all about making money but when you have a sport as unique as boxing they should be making the most exciting match ups, making innovations, acknowledging what the fans want. Where they can improve and bring in new fans and make it as entertaining and competitive as possible. But it just seems the sport has been utterly hijacked by crooks. That’s not the worst of it though, the worst part is that it is just generally accepted and more or less unchallenged. Time and again the fights we should be seeing are denied to us.

Another example of this is Manny Pacquio against Floyd Mayweather Jnr.

Back in 2009 when Pacman was at the peak of his powers and beating everyone and Floyd Mayweather was giving nobody a hope between the ropes these 2 should have fought. It was talked about, and talked about and talked about with accusations flying everywhere. This is when they should have fought, it should have been made to happen.

Now 4 years later with the proposition not nearly as attractive we are still going on about it! Had the fight happened in 2009/2010 it would’ve defined the winner’s legacy. Cemented his name in boxing folklore. The loser would also have been lauded for taking the fight on. Now though? Well we’d all still like to see it but not nearly as bad as when it was red hot. Throw in Pacquaio’s 2 defeats ( ok the Bradley decision was very contentious) and it would feel like a watered down version of what we should have seen. It was boxing politics and the wrong people being allowed to make decisions that robbed us of this spectacle.

Amir Khan is ranked the number 1 contender at welterweight, this despite spending his pro career at lightweight and light welterweight and has never fought at 147. Now this is just plain ridiculous. It’s easy to look at it and draw your own conclusions, like has he been moved there so he can be cherry picked as a floyd Mayweather opponent? It looks as though the obvious answer would be yes and is all for the money. Hell he’s not even number 1 in the division he fights in never mind the 1 above!

If we’re going to start to make fictional rankings lets make Adonis Stevenson the top Cruiserweight contender or better yet make Paulie Malignaggi the top heavyweight!
It all sounds ridiculous, I know but that’s precisely the point I make. The organisations who run the sport can do what they want and we as fans just have to put up with it. This may sound like rambling but it’s not, it’s all relevant to my point that boxing needs a radical overhaul. One day someone may provide the overhaul and drag the sport up where it belongs, making it fairer and more competitive. Until that day we’ll need to put up with what we’ve got.



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