By Jim Dower: With both Klitschko brothers looking at having to defend their titles in 2009 against less than appealing opposition like Oleg Maskaev and Alexander Povetkin, it’s high time for the Wladimir and Vitali to consider giving up their titles and fighting the most appealing fights the way that Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Floyd Mayweather Jr. have been doing for the past couple of years. Once a fighter builds up a name in the media, and is considered one of the best fighters in their perspective division, titles really don’t matter anymore.
In an article by Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated, HBO Vice President Kerry Davis and Ken Herschman, the Showtime Senior VP and General Manager of Sports and Event Programming, both say that titles don’t have any effect with them, saying that they make fights based on the most appealing bouts available and not because of titles.
With that idea in mind, it would probably be in the best interest in both Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko to give up their useless dream of unifying all titles and focus more on just making the best fights they can like Mayweather Jr., Hatton and De La Hoya often do.
Wladimir has wasted a lot of time in recent years, defending his titles against less than appealing fights like Hasim Rahman, Ray Austin, Calvin Brock and Tony Thompson. Essentially, Wladimir, with those fights, has wasted two out of the three years he’s held the IBF heavyweight title defending it against less important challengers.
Now, imagine what Wladimir could have done if he wasn’t weighed down by his useless IBF/WBO titles. He could have fought Chris Arreola, Nikolay Valuev, or Ruslan Chagaev with worry of having to defend or unify his titles. If you add Wladimir’s two titles back, he’s forced to defend them against Povetkin and Alexander Dimitrenko, neither of which have much of a following outside of Europe.
In Vitali’s case, he’s looking at the unpleasant prospect of having to defend his WBC heavyweight title against 40-year-old Oleg Maskaev next. This comes immediately after Vitali’s less than thrilling defense against Juan Carlos Gomez, a fight which the cable networks wanted no part in showing. Who can blame them? The boxing public cared less about the fight, and though it did reasonably well in Europe, it was still nothing to get excited about.
If the heavyweight titles have no value to the cable networks, and matter little to the fans, why keep them? Better to be considered by fans to be the number #1 fighter rather than have to be ordered around by sanctioning bodies and made to fight opponents that the public could care less about.
A champion in any division only has a short period of time at the top, so why waste it by fighting unimportant fights, making less money, and stunting their careers due to fan disinterest. Vitali and Wladimir would be much better served to toss out the belts, go after the best fights – whether that be against a number #1 ranked fighter or number #15 – and try to get the most value out of their careers. If the public is interested in seeing them fight regardless of each of them holding a title, I say get rid of the titles and look for the biggest fights possible.
Vitali would have saved time in his comeback by sidestepping Gomez and going after David Haye, Valuev or Arreola. Instead, he’s forced to fight Gomez and Maskaev in back to back fights, and only after that will Vitali be able to fight whomever he wants in the top 15. That’s a waste of time if you ask me.
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