By Liam Santiago: The idea of two brothers preparing themselves for twelve rounds of battle, in which they should be prepared to go to extreme lengths and absorb all forms of pain, might seem rather absurd to your average man on the street or even your average boxing fan. But who else is their in the heavyweight division that can challenge the number one spot, apart from the brothers themselves.
It is far from often, in any division, that we see brothers fight each other. Randy Turpin never fought his brother Jack. Ricky Hatton would never face off against Matt Hatton Jnr even if they were at the same level. So, why should this be any different.
The brothers have recently spoke about the possibility of the biggest fight the heavyweight division in a very long time. According to the two Ukrainian monsters, the decision is down to Mother Klitschko. If Mrs. Klitschko gave the go ahead, you have to wonder, would the bout be as competitive as it should be? Or would they throw nothing more than a jab over twelve rounds?
The general style of both brothers is a simple jab followed by the odd blasting right hand, which is could knock a speeding train off its tracks. The style does not make for the most interesting fight to watch, but it works for them. However, would a bout between the pair be more like a sparring session? A sparring session that sells a lot of tickets and generates a huge sum of money.
Nobody knows what the future holds. Vitali is set to face unbeaten Mexican man, Chris Arreola in September and Wladimar looks ready to face his no.1 mandatory challenger. Britains David Haye is also desperate to take on either of the giants, but Hayemaker recently snubbed a fight with them, choosing to face off with the beast from the east, Valuev in a fight where he will receive a bigger percentage of the purse.
Will the brothers snub Haye and decide to fight each other? Haye has never shown Vitali or Wladimar any amount of respect so what reason has either of the champions got to fight him? Haye might spend his career like Junior Witter did, never getting his dream bout mainly as a result of the lack of respect he shown his challenger.
A fight such as this, between the two brothers is exactly what the heavyweight division needs, and I think they both know that. The number three ranked heavyweight, only a couple of months ago was Ruslan Chagaev. Wladimar fought the unbeaten, much smaller man and dominated every single round. Chagaev hardly landed a shot on Wladimar.
This is an example of the problem with the division. When a champion fights his fellow top boxers from his division, the bout is supposed to be close or even remotely close. The brothers could each go on and destroy every one else in the division and all that would be left is themselves. Haye and Arreola each have a chance. I personally believe they will both come up short with the Klitschko’s fierce jab causing too many problems.
Klitschko vs Klitschko is a bout which would attract world wide attention. No boxing fan from any corner of the planet would miss this one and that is what we need back in the heavyweight division. It has been too many years since we have a fight on this level. Ali vs Foreman. Ali vs Frazier. Tyson vs Lewis. These all come to mind when you talk about the best heavyweight fights. In terms of the quality of the fighters, this bout would be up there with them all. You simply could not pick a winner prior to the fight.
Although boxing is such a physical sport, with both boxers giving everything they have in the ring in order to win, the best are expected to fight the best. We expect Manny Pacquiao, or Miguel Cotto to fight Floyd Mayweather or Juan Marquez. We expect Amir Khan to rematch Briedis Prescott.
So we should, in reality, expect the two best heavyweights to fight each other. Yes, they are brothers, but fights like this not happening damages the sport. The big question is will Mrs. Klitschko allow it? If Vitali beats Arreola and Wladimar continues to destroy his mandatory’s, or David Haye, we might have the biggest heavyweight fight in too many years coming our way.
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