By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (63-3, 53 KOs) is expecting a huge crowd showing up on Saturday night to see him fight unbeaten American Bryan Jennings (19-0, 10 KOs) at Madison Square Garden in New York. Wladimir, 39, hasn’t spent much time fighting in the United States during his career, and he’s not really become a household name in the U.S because of that.

Even in the fights that Wladimir has had in the U.S, they haven’t always been the most interesting to watch due to his safety-first style of fighting and because all the awful clinching he frequently does in his fights. For that reason it’s interesting to see Wladimir predict a huge crowd showing up to see him fight this Saturday against Jennings. Not only does Wladimir see a large crowd at MSG, but he also thinks that his fight against Jennings will bring in good ratings on HBO.

I had great fights on pay-per-view in Europe with big arenas filled with over 60,000 people. I think it was like six, seven or eight stadiums in a row,” Wladimir said via Fightnews.com. “The demand was so powerful and stronger on the European side. Now the demand is here. People want to see a Klitschko fight here. I’m sure that on fight night the Garden is going to be sold out. I’m sure that the HBO rating is going to be good.”

I think Wladimir has a lot of wishful thinking about him bringing good ratings and a huge crowd for his fight against Jennings. I don’t see it happening, not with this fight. Wladimir isn’t a big enough name the United States in my view for him to bring much of anything for a fight against an obscure heavyweight like Jennings. Now if Wladimir were facing a talent like WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (33-0, 32 KOs) on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, then I could see the fight filling the Garden and bringing in good ratings. But I think that would be due to Deontay’s popularity, not Wladimir.

The Ukrainian fighter is popular in Europe, but I think he’s pretty much invisible over in America. Additionally, Wladimir’s style of fighting isn’t really crowd-pleasing in the minds of a lot of American boxing fans. They want to see slugging from heavyweights, and frequently that’s not what they get from watching Wladimir fight. He’s real tactical and likes to hold a lot to keep his opponents from throwing punches. It works for Wladimir, but a lot of fans see it as very, very boring to watch.

I really hope for Wladimir’s sake that he doesn’t come out looking to clinch 24/7 on Saturday night against Jennings, because I can see Wladimir getting booed out of the arena if he chooses to fight like that. I’m sure his trainer will let him know that he needs to think about mixing it up in order to quiet down the booing fans, but I’m still not sure that will do the trick.

If Wladimir wants to win over the fans that show up to see the fight, and the ones that watch it on HBO, he’s going to need to fight with some urgency to show that he’s willing to go out on his shield if need be. I would suggest that Wladimir sit down and watch some of Deontay Wilder’s fights in order to get the picture of the kind of performances that American boxing fans want to see from a heavyweight, because Wilder is quickly becoming a huge attraction in the U.S.

Wladimir wants to face Deontay in the near future in order to try and win his WBC title off of him. What better way to build up the Wladimir vs. Deontay fight than to face Jennings in the U.S first. I see this as a calculated move on Wladimir’s part to build up the fight first by fighting in the U.S. before finally facing Deontay either in late 2015 or in 2016.

The things that are working against the Wladimir-Deontay fight from being a huge fight is that it’s going to take more than a fight against Jennings for Wladimir to build a name in the U.S, and he’s going to need to fight in an exciting style, not the usual clinch-filled style that we’ve seen in many of his fights over the years. That means that Wladimir needs to start taking on some real tests to increase his popularity because fighting the like of Jennings, Mariusz Wach, Jean Marc Mormeck, Alex Leapai and Francesco Pianeta, isn’t going to get the job done in terms of widening his appeal in America. Wladimir isn’t young enough to build up the Wilder fight the way it needs to be build up by facing the following heavyweights first: Andy Ruiz, Antonio Tarver and Chris Arreola. Those guys are all recognizable names in the U.S, and they would help increase Wladimir’s popularity before a fight against Deontay.