By Scott Gilfoid: The 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko hasn’t said whether he’ll retire from boxing if he loses his match against IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in three months from now on April 29. Wladimir hasn’t fought in two years, and hasn’t won a fight in three years since 2014. It would seem like a logical step for the Ukrainian to make rather than dragging his career further and ruining his legacy by getting beaten by other top fighters.
Wladimir had a good career with the high point arguably being his win over David Haye in 2011. Other than that victory, Wladimir’s resume is rather empty of wins over solid heavyweights. He beat fighters like Samuel Peter, Mariusz Wach, Calvin Brock, Chris Byrd and Jean Marc Mormeck.
Those are night super high quality fighters. Wladimir was very lucky that the heavyweight division was so poor during the 10-year period in which he was a world champion.
Wladimir and Joshua will be fighting in front of 90,000 boxing fans on April 29 at Wembley Stadium in London, England. This would be a very good sendoff for Wladimir to end his career. The fight will be televised on Sky Box Office PPV in the UK, and it’s expected to bring in a massive amount of buys. How much of the UK money that Wladimir will be able to dip his beak into is a good question. If he can share in the loot, then it’ll be a good sendoff to retire on.
Former heavyweight champion George Foreman believes that Joshua could have problems with the experience of Klitschko. Foreman didn’t touch on the fact that Wladimir no longer seems capable of throwing power shots. He can’t pull the trigger on his power shots, and this problem has followed him in his last two fights against Tyson Fury and Bryant Jennings.
“He [Joshua] is a good athlete. He can run and jump. He does a lot of good things,” Foreman said via Omnisport. “He makes for a good boxer. I think he can be a good fighter and a champion but beware of veterans. Klitschko is a veteran. When you start counting people out that is when they reach deep down inside and get things you didn’t know they had. I never count veterans out and they are there and can surprise you. Boxing is so addictive. You win and you say it’s the last one and the next you know, you’re in the ring again. You probably don’t get out until you’re knocked out of the ring like Bernard Hopkins.”
In the best possible world, Wladimir will go out and beat Joshua by a grueling 12 round decision like he did against Samuel Peter in their war in the first fight they had together in 2005. However, for that to happen, Wladimir will need to throw punches and not just jabs.
Wladimir will not beat Joshua if he can’t make him cautious by hitting him with a big power shot. If you look at how Joshua fought in his stoppage loss to Mihai Nistor in 2011, he was like a meek lamb. The reason why was because Nistor jumped on Joshua straightaway in round 1 and was pelting him with lefts to the head and hooks to the body.
Nistor wasn’t messing around with Joshua. He was trying to knock him clean out. The fight eventually had to be stopped after Joshua started staggering around the ring after Nistor brained him with a left to the head. Of course, this was a talented fighter with fearlessness, power, and a great chin in Nistor.
Asking Wladimir to do the same thing against Joshua is probably asking the impossible. I don’t think Wladimir has it in him to fight like Nistor against Joshua. Wladimir is more apt to tie Joshua up with repeated clinches each round while leaning on him and hoping the referee doesn’t tire of this ritual and disqualify him.
With all the boxing fans that going to be seeing the fight live at Wembley Stadium on the night, I doubt the referee will pull the plug on the fight by disqualifying Wladimir. There would be 90,000 irate boxing fans that would be furious at the referee if he stops the contest before Joshua gets a chance to knock Wladimir out in proper fashion.
Wladimir has the punching power to separate Joshua from his senses just like Nistor did. But what good is punching power if you can’t or won’t use it? Wladimir has to throw punches for him to have a chance of winning the fight, and I have little faith that he’s got the courage or the ability to do that at this point.
I don’t think it’s all courage related I think Wladimir’s hand-eye coordination is totally gone. It’s like watching old tapes of basketball player Wilt Chamberlain. When he was young, he could do it all. But by the time Chamberlain hit his mid-30s, he was slow, missing shots, and mostly just dunking the ball rather than using his fade away shot from near the basket.
I don’t think Wladimir can hit even a stationary target with his power shots. He’s not going to put himself in a position where he could get countered and hit with a sucker punch after he misses one of his power shot attempts against Joshua. For that reason, I think Wladimir will only throw jabs and hold all night long against Joshua. Oh yeah, you can count on Wladimir doing a heck of a lot of moving around the ring as well. That goes without saying.
I think Wladimir will spoil to the bigger end. He’s not going to make a fight of it the way some guys like Nistor would. it’s too bad Nistor isn’t around to couch Wladimir. That guy would be valuable. I’d put him in my corner if I were Wladimir and have him give me pointers between rounds in how to destroy Joshua. if there’s anyone that knows how to beat Joshua, it’s Nistor.
I’m sure Wladimir could get him to help out if he offered him enough cash to get him to be a second trainer during the fight. Wladimir wouldn’t have to dump his current trainer Johnathon Banks. He can keep him, and just add Nistor to the team. Wladimir could also get Roberto Cammarelle and Ivan Dychko to help out. Both of those fighters fought Joshua in the 2012 Olympics and they had his number.
They both did a job on Joshua but weren’t given decisions. There wasn’t much bellyaching about the decision from the boxing fans that saw the fight live in London, but from elsewhere there were a lot of fans that felt that Cammarelle, Dychko and Erislandy Savon all got robbed against Joshua in the 2012 London Olympics.
Here’s the deal. If Wladimir loses to Joshua, he can either hang on and try and get another title shot against one of the other champions like Deontay Wilder or Joseph Parker or he can retire. Wladimir might feel that Joshua has his number, and that he would do better against Parker or Wilder. I don’t think it would make any difference.
Wladimir can’t beat the top guys in the division if he can’t throw power shots. Wilder and Parker will destroy Wladimir, as would Luis Ortiz, and David Haye. Heck, even Tony Bellew would beat Wladimir at this point. I think he’s so far gone that he can’t beat any of the heavyweights in the division. That’s why I think Wladimir needs to retire after he loses to Joshua.