By Scott Gilfoid: Despite two poor efforts in his last two fights against Tyson Fury and Bryant Jennings, 40-year-old former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) insists he’s not in decline as he heads towards the biggest fight of his pro career against IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (18-0, 18 KOs) on April 29.
In the view of a lot of boxing fans, Wladimir is already over-the-hill and ready to be sent into retirement by the younger 27-year-old Joshua when the two fight at Wembley Stadium in London, England. It’s not just Wladimir being in his 40s that makes the fans see him as a guy that no longer has what it takes to beat the better fighters in the division. It’s how Wladimir has looked in his last two fights against the light hitting Fury and Jennings.
Wladimir was terrible in both fights, and looked like a guy that couldn’t pull the trigger on his shots and could no longer hit even a stationary target with his punches.
Wladimir said this to skysports.com about him not being in decline:
“Actually the opposite,” Wladimir said about whether he’s in decline or not. “With age I got faster. And my endurance got better, my anticipation. Until now I’ve seen progress. I always ask my team – you guys better tell me before I slow down, because maybe I won’t feel it. Just tell me if it’s there. So it’s not just my opinion. It’s the opinion of people who are close to me.”
I must say that if I was one of Wladimir’s team members, I’d have given him the news two years ago that he no longer has it. I’d say, ‘Wladimir, you look totally shot. You don’t have it anymore. You need to retire. Your loss to Fury is a wake-up call that it’s time for you to pack it in.’
This is so sad that Wladimir is going by what his team is telling him rather than by what the boxing fans are saying. I wonder if Wladimir has ever thought that maybe his team isn’t telling him the reality of how he looks. Who wants to be the guy that tells Wladimir that he’s a shot fighter? Why would they tell him? If Wladimir is told that he’s finished, wouldn’t he retire from boxing? If it was me being told by my team members that I was finished as a fighter, I would likely retire, and then my team members wouldn’t have a job. I’m guessing they wouldn’t be too happy about that. It would take a brave team member to stick their neck out to say what needs to be said about Wladimir not having anything left to give.
The way that Wladimir has looked lately, he doesn’t appear to have the same skills that he had years ago. I don’t think Wladimir is getting better. I think he’s getting worse, much worse. When you compare how Wladimir fights now compared to when he first turned pro, it’s like a completely different fighter. Wladimir was fast when he turned pro, and he threw a lot of punches in his fights. He was constantly throwing shots. Wladimir no longer does that. He’s now very, very selective in the shots he does throw, and he’s not letting his hands go enough. That’s the whole reason Wladimir to Tyson Fury in his last fight in November 2015. Wladimir wouldn’t throw punches, even when Fury was standing right in front of him. It looked like an age thing with Wladimir.
“I do have a lot of weapons,” said Wladimir. “One of them is the jab. It depends how much Anthony is going to give me to use, and which weapon I’m going to choose.”
Yeah, Wladimir does have a lot of weapons at his disposal to use against the 6’6” Joshua on April 29. Wladimir’s left hook is one of the best in the heavyweight division, and he’s got a great jab and right hand. However, as far as I can tell, Wladimir is no longer using his left hook and right hand in his fights except for on rare occasions. The only weapon I’ve seen Wladimir using in his last two fights is his jab. He threw his jab a lot against Jennings, and almost no right hands or left hooks.
In Wladimir’s fight against Fury, he hardly used his jab. Wladimir was following Fury around the ring for 12 rounds, not throwing punches and looking like he was waiting for an opening. Most top heavyweights would have committed to throwing something at Fury. Even if the shot missed, they would follow up at close range and look to punch Fury’s lights out. Wladimir wouldn’t commit to anything. He looked terribly gun-shy, as he was afraid to throw anything.
Joshua is one of those fighters that does well when nothing is being thrown back at him from his opponents. Joshua gets bold when nothing is thrown at him. Joshua is a much different fighter when his opponents are bouncing power shots off his chin. If you don’t believe me, take a look at Joshua’s fights in the amateur ranks when he was getting knocked out by Mihai Nistor and winning controversial decisions over Roberto Cammarelle.
Joshua looked timid against both of those guys. The reason for that is because they were looking to take Joshua’s head off with every power punch they threw. These were big punchers, and they were both looking to KO Joshua. Nistor succeeded in stopping Joshua. Cammarelle got the better of Joshua in their two fights in my view, but he ended up losing very questionable decisions. Joshua was not the same fighter against those guys as he’s been in the pro ranks fighting mostly stiffs that haven’t thrown punches at him. As such, if Wladimir doesn’t let his hands go against Joshua, he’s going to get blasted out FAST on April 29.
The only way Wladimir can survive for any length of time against Joshua is to try and emulate what Nistor and Cammarelle both did in their fights against big Joshua. Can Wladimir do that? I doubt it. I think Wladimir’s cautious fighting style is too well ingrained at this point in his career, and I don’t see him being able to change his DNA to fight like Nistor and Cammarelle.