“Fighting Words” – Wlad Klitschko: Heavyweight Heave-Ho

by David P. Greisman

It’s not TV. It’s HBO – Heavyweight Boxing Online.

That Wladimir Klitschko’s fight March 20 against Eddie Chambers won’t be on HBO is unusual but not unprecedented – his last fight, a win last June over Ruslan Chagaev, was aired on ESPN Classic.

But Klitschko-Chambers won’t be on American airwaves whatsoever. Instead, it will be broadcast on the Internet, an online pay-per-view on Klitschko.com priced at $14.95.  The audience will presumably be a lot smaller than that which would tune in on cable television. Still, the audience will probably be a lot larger than what the usual niche Web pay-per-views pull in.

So, this is what it’s come to.

Heavyweight champions used to be the kings of boxing’s marquee division. The best of the big men used to be the standard-bearer, the conversation starter. Now it seems as if heavyweights have gotten the heave-ho. At best, they are merely part of the picture. At worst, they are afterthoughts.

It would be easy to call out HBO for not showing Klitschko-Chambers. It would be easy to look at their schedule and note that Klitschko-Chambers could be paired with the traditional week-after free rebroadcast of the previous week’s pay-per-view main event, in this case the March 13 fight between Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey.

We don’t know the details, however. We don’t know the budgeting for the five cards, not including pay-per-views, that HBO will air in March and April. We don’t know what’s in the works on the network for the remaining eight months of 2010. And, most importantly, we don’t know how much Klitschko’s promotional company was asking for the rights to air the fight live or on tape delay from Germany.

Nothing is free. No other American network felt it worth the price to air Klitschko-Chambers. HBO, Showtime, ESPN and Versus all heard sales pitches, and all either didn’t have room in their schedules or they didn’t want to (or couldn’t) pay what was being asked, according to ESPN.com scribe Dan Rafael.

Nothing is free. It’s doubtful Klitschko would give the rights away for the sake of staying in the public eye. It would set a bad precedent. And besides, he is an intercontinental champion whose recognition goes beyond the United States.

HBO Boxing executives have long sought to have (and succeeded in having) the heavyweight champion under contract. The network remains the home of Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko. But where once there had been an obligation to chronicle each episode in their careers, those executives now have a desire to speak with their wallet, to try to buy fights out of want instead of out of need.

Heavyweights as a whole appear to be less a priority now than they once were.

Of the 11 non pay-per-view fights scheduled for HBO so far in 2010 (HBO doesn’t control the pay-per-view undercards), only one – a coming fight between Tomasz Adamek and Chris Arreola – is a heavyweight bout.

How did we get where we are now? Let’s take a look at how heavyweights have fit into the HBO schedule in the past decade or so.

2001 – Ten of 48 fights: Michael Bennett vs. Andrew Hutchinson; Lance Whitaker vs. Oleg Maskaev; Wladimir Klitschko vs. Derrick Jefferson; Lennox Lewis vs. Hasim Rahman; Kirk Johnson vs. Larry Donald; Michael Grant vs. Jameel McCline; Wladimir Klitschko vs. Charles Shufford; David Izon vs. Fres Oquendo; Lance Whitaker vs. Jameel McCline; and John Ruiz vs. Evander Holyfield.

2002 – Seven of 33 fights: Jameel McCline vs. Shannon Briggs; Evander Holyfield vs. Hasim Rahman; Wladimir Klitschko vs. Ray Mercer; John Ruiz vs. Kirk Johnson; David Tua vs. Michael Moorer; Wladimir Klitschko vs. Jameel McCline; and Evander Holyfield vs. Chris Byrd.

2003 – Ten of 32 fights: Wladimir Klitschko vs. Corrie Sanders; David Tua vs. Hasim Rahman; Michael Grant vs. Dominick Guinn; Lennox Lewis vs. Vitali Klitschko; Chris Byrd vs. Fres Oquendo; Juan Carlos Gomez vs. Sinan Samil Sam; Joe Mesi vs. Duncan Dokiwari; Joe Mesi vs. Monte Barrett; and Vitali Klitschko vs. Kirk Johnson.

2004 – Four of 28 fights: Joe Mesi vs. Vassiliy Jirov; Dominick Guinn vs. Monte Barrett; Wladimir Klitschko vs. Lamon Brewster; and Vitali Klitschko vs. Corrie Sanders.

2005 – Five of 23 fights: Samuel Peter vs. Yanqui Diaz; Wladimir Klitschko vs. Eliseo Castillo; John Ruiz vs. James Toney; Lamon Brewster vs. Andrew Golota; and Wladimir Klitschko vs. Samuel Peter.

2006 – Five of 33 fights: Hasim Rahman vs. James Toney; Chris Byrd vs. Wladimir Klitschko; Calvin Brock vs. Timur Ibragimov; Nikolay Valuev vs. Monte Barrett; and Wladimir Klitschko vs. Calvin Brock.

2007 – Two of 31 fights: Wladimir Klitschko vs. Ray Austin; and Wladimir Klitschko vs. Lamon Brewster.

2008 – Seven of 34 fights: Alexander Povetkin vs. Eddie Chambers; Wladimir Klitschko vs. Sultan Ibragimov; Oleg Maskaev vs. Samuel Peter; Chris Arreola vs. Chazz Witherspoon; Wladimir Klitschko vs. Tony Thompson; Chris Arreola vs. Travis Walker; and Wladimir Klitschko vs. Hasim Rahman.

2009 – Four of 32 fights involved heavyweights: Chris Arreola vs. Jameel McCline; Vitali Klitschko vs. Chris Arreola; Brian Minto vs. Chris Arreola; and Vitali Klitschko vs. Kevin Johnson.

The farther back you go, the more heavyweights there were on HBO. We began with a wealth of prospects and contenders vying for shots at the beltholders and the champion. In the post-Lennox Lewis era, Vitali Klitschko was handed the mantle before retiring. Wladimir Klitschko, meanwhile, was rebuilding.

Wladimir Klitschko did rebuild, and HBO did show nearly every step of him working his way up to the No. 1 spot in the division. Before the Chagaev fight, the last time Klitschko appeared anywhere besides HBO was 11 fights ago. Showtime aired his first fight following his loss to Lamon Brewster, a technical decision win over DaVarryl Williamson.

As the years passed, most of those prospects and contenders from the earlier part of the decade either fizzled out or flamed out. And yet many of those same names are still around, no longer worthy of contention and no longer worthy of attention.

The Klitschkos, with superior skills and inferior opponents, now hold three of the four major world titles. Beyond them, HBO has largely latched onto a few prospects who fight out of the States, especially Chris Arreola, a fan-friendly fighter and personality whose manager, Al Haymon, has a close working relationship with the network.

There are fewer quality heavyweight prospects in America and more contenders in Eastern Europe. There is little investment in overseas broadcasts and little incentive to broadcast bouts that tend not to be competitive. The prospect of two big men slugging it out is far more difficult a selling point than it once was – it doesn’t happen much anymore.

The last heavyweight pay-per-view to do big business was the 2002 mismatch between Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson. Since then, HBO has tried two heavyweight pay-per-views – Vitali Klitschko vs. Danny Williams in 2004, and the rematch between Hasim Rahman and Oleg Maskaev in 2006. Each bombed.

The first two fights of Vitali Klitschko’s comeback were on other networks before HBO began featuring him again: He faced Samuel Peter on Showtime in October 2008 and Juan Carlos Gomez on ESPN Classic in March 2009.

The network is trying to be more judicious, even if its decisions aren’t necessarily just.

Why hold off on a proven commodity in Wladimir Klitschko against a resurgent prospect in Eddie Chambers, yet mull over money for an unproven titlist in Amir Khan against one of several potential opponents?

Because of the difference between probability and possibility and the difference between excellence and excitement.

Other divisions are deeper but more flawed. Each match-up is another installment in a series, another round in a tournament, with uncertain outcomes driving the drama. The heavyweights are serial and episodic. Like Law and Order, you know who will stand triumphant at the end.

Is that any fault of the Klitschkos? No. Is Klitschko-Chambers worse than some of the other fights that have been picked up? No.

But heavyweights are no longer the standard-bearer or the conversation starter. The brightest stars are in lighter weight classes. Conversations begin with Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

This is a society based on supply and demand. When it comes to heavyweights in the United States, there is, for the moment, little of either.

1.  Finally, big time boxing is back!

The hiatus Showtime and HBO apparently imposed on themselves, likely due to the Olympics, gives way to a run in which eight of the next nine Saturdays will see notable fights broadcast in the United States – the lone exception being March 20, a night on which, as I noted above, Wladimir Klitschko vs. Eddie Chambers could have been paired on HBO with the replay of the previous week’s Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey pay-per-view main event.

Beats passing the time watching curling.

2.  Here’s the Saturday schedule:

March 6: Devon Alexander vs. Juan Urango (HBO); Vic Darchinyan vs. Rodrigo Guerrero (Showtime)

March 13: Manny Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey (HBO Pay-Per-View)

March 27: Marcos Maidana vs. Victor Cayo, Ali Funeka vs. Joan Guzman 2 (HBO); Arthur Abraham vs. Andre Dirrell (Showtime)

April 3: Roy Jones vs. Bernard Hopkins 2 (independent pay-per-view, distributed by HBO)

April 10: Andre Berto vs. Carlos Quintana, Tavoris Cloud vs. Glen Johnson (HBO)

April 17: Kelly Pavlik vs. Sergio Martinez, Lucian Bute vs. Edison Miranda (HBO)

April 24: Andre Ward vs. Allan Green, Carl Froch vs. Mikkel Kessler (Showtime); Tomasz Adamek vs. Chris Arreola, Alfredo Angulo vs. Joel Julio (HBO)

May 1: Shane Mosley vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. (HBO PPV)

3.  Sometime in the future, somewhere in the footnotes of boxing history, there will be an entry on Rodel Mayol, the lord of technical decisions.

Four of Mayol’s last five fights have ended in technical decisions:

- An October 2008 win over Ardin Diale, which ended in the seventh round, reportedly because Diale was cut by a clash of heads.

- A June 2009 draw with Ivan Calderon, which ended in the sixth round because Calderon was cut by a clash of heads.

- A September 2009 loss to Calderon, which ended after seven rounds because Calderon was cut by a clash of heads.

- And, as seen this past Saturday, a draw with Omar Nino. According to reports, Nino landed a low blow on Mayol, who dropped his hands. As the referee was stepping in, Nino knocked Mayol out.

The lone fight of the five not to end in technical decision had its own controversy: a second-round technical knockout of Edgar Sosa this past November saw Sosa visibly hurt by a clash of heads and then stopped soon thereafter.

4.  Up next for Mayol? At this rate, I expect Fan Man to return in his next fight, landing either on him or his opponent, knockout by surprise aerial assault.

5.  Boxers/Boxing Referees Behaving Badly: A boxing referee who formerly fought as a pro was sentenced last week to jail time after being convicted of three counts of perjury and two counts of tampering with public records, according to New Jersey newspaper The Courier News.

How much jail time for Sanford Ricks? Wish I could tell you for certain. The headline for the story says “Man sentenced to 18 months on perjury, tampering charges,” but the first sentence of the story says Ricks “has been sentenced to 180 days.” He was also sentenced to two years of probation.

Ricks, 51, used fake insurance information when registering his truck. He then lied under oath at a trial in which he was charged with using a fake motor vehicle insurance card.

Ricks has refereed at least five pro fights in New Jersey, according to BoxRec.com. His record as a pro boxer was 20-5-1 (10 knockouts).

6.  My goal for this week: Meet Don King at the Devon Alexander-Juan Urango card in Connecticut. Transcribe everything he says into the 21st century version of James Joyce’s “Ulysses.”

7.  Forget the early “Fight of the Year” candidate that was Antonio Escalante vs. Miguel Roman (which aired on ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights). Here’s all you really need to know about last week’s fight action:

McJoe Arroyo, now 1-0.

McWilliams Arroyo, also now 1-0.

McLovin Arroyo, still just a figment of my imagination.

8.  I see a sponsorship deal in these kids’ futures. And lord, I hope their parents aren’t the kind of people who name their children after where they were conceived.

9.  Tweet of the Week: “Ok enough of this shit when my movie comes out about my life its going to be the #1 movie for months” – @SUPERJUDAH, the one and only Zab Judah, presumably (and hopefully) typing with tongue planted firmly in cheek.

10.  “Ali,” a drama starring Will Smith as the Greatest of All Time, pulled in two Oscar nominations.

“Tyson,” a documentary featuring the former Baddest Man on the Planet, garnered critical acclaim.

“Zab,” a comedy and coming-of-age story, would be a shoo-in for a Razzie.

David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. His weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. He may be reached for questions and comments at