(Picture credit: Public Address) By Ian Vaughan: And so it approaches – The Heavyweight champ Wladimir Klitschko (58(50)-3) will be taking on the untested Mariusz Wach (27(15)-0), very soon and many fans and pundits have put this down to another clumsy clodhopper, another scrape off the bottom of the barrel being cherry picked for Wlad to notch up another KO. Well with that whiff hanging around this event, and so many other exciting fights lined up all over the world this weekend, why would anyone watch this?
So what will it be? There are quite a few fights of (high and middling) interest this weekend: No.1 bantamweight and P4P contender Anselmo Moreno is taking on Abner Mares in LA, with Light Heavyweight Brit abroad Nathan Cleverly vying for some of that USA sparkle by putting up his WBO title on the undercard. There is an opportunity to see a player in the ultra-competitive super middleweight division in Thomas Oosthuizen show his stuff against heavy handed Colombian Fulgencio Zuniga out of South Africa. Junior (or light? Who can tell anymore?) Middleweight Vanes Martirosyan is fighting Erislandy Lara in what may be an eliminator to face Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez. These two are dangerous and talented; this should be a great fight with interesting repercussions whatever the outcome.
So with all this and even more HW action in Robert Helenius fighting Sherman Williams all on the same night, how much interest is there left in the terrible mismatch outlined above? Well boxing is a funny old game. To begin with the Helenius bout is a comeback fight for the big Finlander even though he (allegedly) won his last fight against Chisora. This guy was a great prospect before that fight (which was by far his most significant victory to date), and yet now is less relevant than ever. So even with all that talent-in-a-ring available this weekend I for one will be prioritizing Klitschko v Wach.
Why? Well perhaps because this fight is for the greatest titles in boxing. Perhaps because the last decent tear up we saw at HW was between pumped up cruiserweight Marco Huck and Alexander Povetkin. Perhaps because this is the closest thing to a competitive fight for Wlad since he bounced David Haye around the ring over a year ago. Now the fact that that fight turned out not to be competitive at all is not the point – the point is that David Haye had one punch KO power, skill, speed and a big mouth. It looked like it could be interesting. That Wlad pretty much trounced him on the night is merely testament to how good he is at using his size and skill to block out the smaller competition. Tonight he will have to face a hungry and younger competitor his own size: someone who is not a recycled HW, someone who is not out of shape and merely looking to be paid. Or in other words – someone who is not Jean Marc Mormeck or Tony Thompson. When was the last time Wlad took a fight as risky as this? Or more to the point – when was the last time a fight as risky as this was available? And that is why I will be looking forward to see what happens when the two big men collide for …
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