by David P. Greisman
Two years after Lamon Brewster put Wladimir Klitschko out onto the scrap heap, finishing the job that Corrie Sanders started in March 2003, Klitschko has finally reemerged, rebuilt and rejuvenated by regaining his stake in the heavyweight title picture.
His new IBF title is still only one of the four major belts, but it is accompanied by a feeling of legitimacy due to his destruction of now-former beltholder Chris Byrd, the longest reigning titlist and consensus number one heavyweight in a division that has recently seen both an upheaval and a downturn.
Although Hasim Rahman holds the WBC belt that belonged to Wladimir’s brother Vitali prior to the older Klitschko’s abrupt retirement, Wladimir now has a claim – along with Rahman – to the top ranking among boxing’s big men, thanks mostly to attrition and quality of opposition. And unless Klitschko is dethroned prior to the long-desired unification tournament, he will stay at the top, the place where experts and observers expected him to be years ago.
Despite the delayed ascent, Klitschko’s triumph seems much sweeter than his first title run from 2000 to 2003 – one that also began in Germany with two floorings of Chris Byrd – back when Klitschko was more of an unknown commodity. While he steamrolled through five defenses – winning all via knockout – Klitschko essentially went untested until he met the left cross of Corrie Sanders.
But now he has overcome adversity, answering questions – about his chin, stamina and confidence in both of the former – raised by the losses to Sanders and Brewster. And his resurgence has been neither hurried nor immediate.
Indeed, in his first fight back after collapsing against Brewster, Klitschko was hesitant against DaVarryl Williamson, escaping with a split technical decision after a clash of heads opened up a cut on Klitschko, forcing the fight to go the cards. Even though Williamson backpedaled for a majority of the five rounds, “Touch of Sleep” had put Klitschko on his seat.
But if Klitschko could console himself with the win and the idea that he had merely been caught off balance, the look on his face following the accidental head butt was of a man who did not want to be in the ring and did not know how to safely escape it with a victory.
The next fight was designed to be a confidence booster, as Klitschko returned to his adopted home country of Germany to batter Eliseo Castillo. It may only have been a stoppage of a blown-up cruiserweight, but Klitschko still left with a win over an undefeated opponent, escaping without a mark.
Klitschko desired a return to contention, but to get there he needed to go through another undefeated foe. His fight with Samuel Peter ended up being the required test and turning point, a bout against a man seen as having two of the heaviest hands in the sport. Danger existed in every single incoming punch, requiring Klitschko to use distance, his height advantage and a lot of holding in order to leave with an uneasy decision victory.
All three judges had Klitschko winning nine of the 12 rounds, but Peter had knocked him down thrice, leaving their scorecards at a closer 114-111 tally. In those moments when Peter was out for blood, Klitschko’s eyes opened like the proverbial deer in the headlights, and it remained to be seen if fear and retreat would tire Wladimir out.
But there he was in the twelfth round, averaging about 40 punches per stanza and still having enough in him to wobble Peter with a massive left hook. Thanks to his work with Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward, Klitschko was able to retain energy while using his height and weight to tire out his opponents with an overdose of holding and leaning forward in clinches – the same maddening strategy that Steward installed in Lennox Lewis.
The win over Peter earned Klitschko the right to challenge either IBF titlist Chris Byrd or WBO beltholder Lamon Brewster, a rematch no matter whom he chose. Klitschko picked Byrd, and based on the beating Klitschko gave him in 2000, it would have been fair for the buzz leading up to the rematch to consist of expectations of a repeat performance.
Yet recent history had changed the situation, and not just because of Klitschko’s problems in recent years. For after losing a lopsided decision to Klitschko, Byrd went to work on his own reconstruction, putting together a streak of nine fights without a loss. He stepped into the ring with big men like Jameel McCline and Andrew Golota, and big punchers like David Tua, winning every time out except for the draw with Golota.
But facing down these opponents that he looked up at was nothing new to Byrd, who had become accustomed to triumphing against those with advantages in height and strength.
As a 6’0” Olympic middleweight who jumped almost immediately to heavyweight upon turning professional, the majority of Byrd’s career saw him in the role of the giant killer. To compensate, he relied on an unattractive defensive style to stymie his slower opponents. But in recent fights age had decreased his speed advantage, forcing him to move less and trade more, morphing the pillow-fisted boxer into a willing aggressor.
In the rematch with Klitschko, Byrd needed to get inside on his 6’6” challenger, where he believed he could test Klitschko’s criticized chin with his own criticized power, hoping to lob enough pebbles to fell the big man. Unfortunately for Byrd, his desired outcome would be reversed, thanks to the boulders landing on him in the form of Klitschko’s mitts.
By the time the referee waved the fight off in the first minute of the seventh round, Byrd was bloodied and beaten down. The Biblical story had been rewritten, as this time Goliath slew David. No amount of pebbles could do the trick this time around, not when Klitschko could kill one Byrd with his two stones.
With the win, Klitschko went from salvageable to sensational, taking Byrd’s title in front of adoring fans at an event important enough that a string quartet played the national anthems live and Michael Buffer decided to show off his German.
But for all the glory that accompanied this past weekend, knocking out Byrd without taking a hard shot to the chin does not mean that a Hasim Rahman right hand won’t send Klitschko back to the scrap heap. But until Klitschko is forced into that kind of scrap, he can rejoice in his rejuvenation, a feat that deserves recognition.
The 10 Count
1. After HBO’s broadcast of Byrd-Klitschko II was their Ricardo Mayorga-Oscar De La Hoya preview show, a semi-normal occurrence when the outlet has a major pay-per-view on the horizon. But Mayorga’s trademark foul mouth was often edited. His abundant use of the Spanish word “maricon,” a derogatory term implying homosexuality made infamous by Benny “Kid” Paret’s taunts of Emile Griffith, was translated a majority of the time into the English equivalent of a female dog. Considering Mayorga’s reputation as a cigarette smoking, liquor-drinking brawler, his insulting of De La Hoya did not need to be tamed down, especially when the fight is being marketed with Mayorga as the villain and “The Golden Boy” as the hero.
2. The miraculous recovery of Jorge Castro did not extend to his in-ring fortunes. Castro, a veteran of over 100 fights, was a former middleweight titlist and a contender at light heavyweight and cruiserweight. But last summer, Castro suffered severe injuries in a car accident and was in a coma for three weeks. This weekend, he made his return to the ring but was brutalized over four rounds by Jose Luis Herrera, a 13-1 prospect who stopped Castro in the fourth round. Hopefully Castro will count his blessings and retire after nearly two decades as a professional fighter and a record of 129-11-3.
3. Sticking with former cruiserweights, Vassiliy Jirov made his return to that division after a two-year stint with the heavyweights. Jirov took a unanimous decision over Luke Munsen, a journeyman whose biggest win was over nobody I’ve ever heard of. Although Jirov knocked Munsen down in the fifth, Munsen returned the favor in the eighth. Perhaps – after being dissected by James Toney in 2003, then moving to heavyweight and losing to Joe Mesi (but nearly coming back to win), being knocked out by Michael Moorer and drawing with an ancient Orlin Norris – Jirov may not have enough left to compete at the same high level he had prior to the Toney bout.
4. Taurus Sykes – the heavyweight journeyman dispatched in two rounds last year by Samuel Peter – showed his lack of chin in a knockout loss to Derek Bryant on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights, going down multiple times from glancing uppercuts. But of more concern is that even 20 minutes after going down four times in the final two rounds, the on-site physician had yet to check on his health. Perhaps the lack of readiness by the commission in Augusta, Ga., was best exemplified in the televised walkout bout, when a fighter suffered a cut from a punch bad enough that the ringside doctor needed to check it out. The physician took his time, because after all, he hadn’t even put his latex gloves on yet. Let’s hope that this televised embarrassment will cause change before an unnecessary tragedy requires it.
5. Two days prior to Bryant-Sykes, on ESPN2’s Wednesday Night Fights, welterweights Kermit Cintron and David Estrada put on a heckuva show that started with Cintron in trouble and ended with Cintron winning via stoppage. It was a major step foward for Cintron after the embarrassing drubbing he took at the hands of Antonio Margarito one year ago. Cintron showed toughness and heart in working his way back into the fight until he could take command. Still, Estrada isn’t the most heavy-handed fighter at 147, yet he was able to put a scare into Cintron early. Either Cintron will have an entertaining run as a contender but not a champion at welterweight, or he needs to jump up a division in hopes that the extra poundage will help his chin.
6. Speaking of Margarito, efforts are being taken by promoter Bob Arum to finally get him in the ring with Floyd Mayweather Jr. According to reports, Mayweather would pocket $8 million to Margarito’s $1.5 million, a sweet deal for “Pretty Boy Floyd” that could only be topped this year by a megafight with Oscar De La Hoya. Even if Mayweather eventually beats Margarito easily like so many people have predicted on paper, I’d rather see that fight than read the poor excuse from Mayweather and his fans that Margarito hasn’t beaten anybody of consequence. Nobody said such a thing when Mayweather took a mismatch against Henry Bruseles, but then again there are no excuses needed when there is no challenge.
7. If Mayweather-Judah II happens – as the IBF dubiously desires – I’ll eat Bert Sugar’s fedora.
8. Sticking with sanctioning bodies and ridiculousness, Dan Rafael reports that junior featherweight champ Israel Vazquez may be defending against Ivan “Choko” Hernandez on the undercard of June’s Antonio Tarver-Bernard Hopkins pay-per-view. The issue is what Hernandez did to earn a title shot at 122. Just one year ago, Hernandez lost his 115-pound title to Fernando Montiel and then took an over-the-weight junior featherweight fight against Cesar Morales. As for Morales – who Hernandez beat – his only victory of note was at 118 against former prospect Clarence Vinson. This weekend, Hernandez fought in a WBC bantamweight eliminator against Roberto Carlos Leyva, a dubious contender on his own considering that Leyva’s recent career had been spent four divisions below as a minimumweight. And now Hernandez takes a majority decision in a WBC bantamweight eliminator and gets a junior featherweight title shot.
9. I read that Emanuel Steward has joined trainer Pat Burns in the corner of Jermain Taylor for Taylor’s June fight with Winky Wright. More than any other trainer out there, the addition of Steward could change the outcome of Taylor-Wright, especially considering that Taylor is an eager student and Steward a wise teacher. I’ve written it before and I’m doing so again: with the glut of pay-per-view shows this year, Taylor-Wright is getting very little attention, but it is one of the most important and intriguing fights on the horizon, and it’s being shown on regular HBO.
10. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, former lightweight titlist Paul Spadafora was paroled from prison and will spend 30 days in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center. Spadafora was incarcerated for shooting his then-fiancée in a domestic dispute over two flat tires on his Hummer, but became eligible for parole because he completed a boot camp program recommended by his trial judge. This column occasionally chronicles boxers who behave badly. Maybe this time I can write more about a boxer who turned his life around.
