Photo © Yuriy Nesterenko, www.Klitschko.com – By Jim Dower: I never thought I’d see a Klitschko fight draw as little interest as this one, but it appears that IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko’s (51-3, 45 KOs) decision to face former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman (45-6-2, 36 KOs) this Saturday night at SAP-Arena, in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, has the effect of turning off many boxing fans.
Klitschko, 32, was originally scheduled to face Alexander Povetkin, his number #1 mandatory challenger for his IBF title, but Povetkin injured himself in training and had to bow out. That left a huge void to fill with few available challengers to step in and take the fight. Oleg Maskaev and Rahman’s name were kicked around, as well as a few more, but in the end Rahman got the nod, no doubt due to his former championship status.
However, the boxing fans have been slow to show any interest in this fight, as many of them see the 36 year-old Rahman as being over the hill. The problem isn’t that he’s been losing a lot, because he’s only lost twice fight in the past five years, but his wins have mostly come at the expense of lower quality fighters rather than top rung talent like Klitschko.
As for Wladimir, who has been considered the best heavyweight in boxing for the past two years, he hasn’t caught on with fans due to his uninspiring, often safety-first fights, as well as his dull interviews that he gives leading up to fights.
Although loaded with talent, he fights afraid much of the time, fearful to throw right hands despite having one of the best in the heavyweight division, and looking as if he’s afraid to get hit. At 6’7″, 245, it’s more than a little off putting to see a fighter as big as him fight so timidly.
Perhaps because of this, Wladimir has picked up few fans since picking up the first of his two heavyweight titles in 2006. Even when facing the weakest of heavyweight punchers, Sultan Ibragimov, Wladimir treated him as if he were a knockout artist, afraid to throw right hands for the entire fight, clinching often and mostly jabbing.
Wladimir didn’t fight much better in his last fight against Tony Thompson, whom he eventually stopped in the 11th round after fighting cautiously for most of the bout. It was another dull fight that put many boxing fans to sleep.
Rahman, 36, has a puncher’s chance, if nothing else in this fight. He’s lost a step or two in the past seven years since defeating Lennox Lewis with an exciting one-punch knockout in 2001 to win the IBF/WBC heavyweight titles.
While the speed is now mostly gone, Rahman still packs a big punch with his right hand and has a good jab to go along with it. The problem for him is that Wladimir takes few chances nowadays and won’t likely give him as many chances as Lewis gave him seven years ago to land it.
If the fight turns into a war of jabs, then Wladimir will win this one quite easily, because he has the much better jab than Rahman. At the same time, he has a nifty left hook that he uses at times, which may indeed be his hardest punch in his arsenal.
When throwing the left hook, Wladimir is still relatively safe from getting countered and hard to hit. If Wladimir lands his left hook with any kind of consistency, then Rahman will likely be hitting the canvas early on.
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