By Rick Reeno
Fight week in Germany opened up on Monday with verbal fireworks between the camps of Wladimir Klitschko and Kubrat Pulev. This Saturday night at the O2 World Arena in Hamburg, Klitschko will defend the WBA/WBO/IBO/IBF heavyweight titles against Pulev, the IBF's mandatory challenger.
Pulev no-showed Monday's final press conference. The boxer was furious that members of his team were denied access to the presser by Klitschko's promotional company, K2 Promotions.
"The sneaky tricks of the world champion are just the beginning," Pulev stated. "That kind of behavior isn't suitable for a world champion of four federations with such a huge experience and with that name. It is just not suitable."
"They try to corner us and to makes us feel uncomfortable any way possible. This is a mental game that they do not know that I am completely prepared for. I am from Bulgaria, you know."
Bernd Boente, manager of Wladimir, tells BoxingScene.com that Pulev was informed in advance that only three members of his team would be granted access to the press conference. It works both ways, says Boente. The manager states that Wladimir only had three team members present.
Pulev is promoted by Sauerland Event, who are K2's main promotional rival in Europe. The two companies are far from friendly and they are rarely on the same page when negotiating fights.
"You can imagine that we've had so many opponents, and so many managers and promoters that we've had to talk to in all of these years when Wladimir fights. The only time when we have to go to purse bid is with Sauerland. Because we can never find an agreement. They are never interested in negotiating.....little or big issues like tickets or this or that," Boente told BoxingScene.com
"We never have an agreement with Sauerland. They never want to negotiate. They want to go to purse bid and then negotiate. We let them know that only three people from their side are invited to the press conference. They showed up with an entire entourage, directors, people from the executive level of Sauerland. The Pulev team said 'all of the people in or nobody' and we said 'okay, then nobody,' because blackmailing won't work with us."
