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Probably one of the most common threads on this forum of late are threads about Vitali Klitschko. Nothing wrong with that – after all, we’re talking about the man widely regarded as the premier fighter in what is historically boxing’s most favoured division. Never mind that the division is currently at its least respected since the Holmes era (albeit with a title fragmented four ways and none of them belonging to a future top ten shortlister).
Yet when I read posts about the Ukranian I find myself both thinking that he’s nowhere near as good as he’s made out to be, and that he’s far better than it’s claimed... both at the same time. This doesn’t make sense.
Part of the fun of being a spectator of the sport is predicting who will win a given bout. I’ve done it, we’ve all done it. Sometimes you get it right, often you get it wrong, it’s all just part of the enjoyment of it all. Yet the only time I’ve actually been embarrassed by a pick was suggesting that Danny Williams had a chance at dethroning Vitali back in December of last year. I’ve seen at least a dozen of Williams’s fights and know the form... perennial underachiever, can look a million dollars on any given night, can look like garbage on another. Then there’s that wildly unpredictable psyche. Yet my pick wasn’t actually inspired by Williams at all – I was basing it on the fact that Vitali is such an untested quantity.
His prior fight had been against Corrie Sanders, during which time he had looked tentative, vulnerable, and paid the price of a lack of caution by having his legs buckled in the first and then conducting an undignified, scrambling retreat. Only when Klitschko had made doubly – make that triply – sure that Sanders no longer posed any threat did he really start to throw anything substantial in his direction.
For a man who made his current reputation on losing to a ludicrously out of condition Lennox Lewis, his moment has arguably already been and gone. Though promotional difficulties have necessitated who he can fight, his three post-Lewis opponents have all been, with the possible exception of Williams, as out of condition as Lewis, only without the Olympic skills to drag out a cuts victory. Even Williams, while indulging in a quaintly old-fashioned training regime that saw him pushing parked cars to build upper body strength, was encouraged to eat so wholesomely that his expansive girth was a prime target for mockery, as well as historical stats. Equalling the heaviest title bout in history is one way to go into the history books, but probably not what the Williams camp favoured.
Johnson, meanwhile, while skilled, had less justification to be in a ring with Vitali on the night he arrived, while Sanders seemingly gambled on being able to repeat the trick of a two-round Klitschko demolition... a trick which, in his favour, he very nearly managed.
The Sanders bout was an uncomfortably amateurish bout for a vacated title, yet the one-sided Johnson pounding had added frisson by being Vitali’s calling card for a Lewis rematch. However, since Lewis’s retirement Klitschko seems unable to generate excitement on his own terms, but have his name mentioned solely as a catalyst for a possible Lewis return.
So... how good is Vitali? At present, next to impossible to tell. His uniquely rigid stance inspires many detractors for what is an aesthetically displeasing style, though his torso can be effectively manoeuvred out of range, and at a far greater speed than his critics would attest. It looks deceptively easy to hit, though this is a man with a Doctorate in physical science that uses his height and build to his advantage, not his opponent’s. There’s never any need to get in close, when rivals can be tagged from an 80" reach.
The power is an important question, and seems to tie in to Vitali’s pensive fighting style – it’s on record that he hits less hard than Mike Tyson (no great shame in that), and the vast majority of his punches are from the arms. Lovers of the heavyweight division for its prime exponent – the knock-out – are likely to feel shortchanged by a man who relies on steady pounding of opponents and TKOs (21 of his 34 knock out record) over one-punch finishes. Yet he gets the job done, however unsatisfactorily (both of his opponents in his last two, championship, fights, have been stopped by the referee’s intervention, not his own hands). It’s a considerable question as to what Vitali could do if he actually sat down on those punches, bearing in mind the damage he causes just from what amount to rudimentary swipes.
Then there’s the chin, heart and stamina. Next to his inappropriately respectful paintings of opponents ("Because the Garden’s sold out, that’s why!" was once Ali’s reply to why he and Joe Frazier continually insulted one another) all three are the most suspect elements in Vitali’s make-up. The first is perhaps unfair – while he was seen to be running shamefully across the ring after a Sanders shot on the chin and was rocked backwards after walking onto a Lewis jab, this is also the same fighter who took two vintage Lewis uppercuts and withstood Sander’s follow up assaults to overpower him. The most obvious reason why this will – and perhaps always will be – in doubt is the simple fact that he shares 75% of the same genetic material as the man who currently has what is regarded as the elite’s weakest chin. Whether Wladimir’s problems in this area are more psychological than physiological remains to be seen, but this is an element that will always – no matter how illogical – play at the back of some observer’s minds.
The heart and the stamina? Neither are truly tested at the present time. While it’s arguable that such a large frame will be vulnerable to injury and Vitali was applying intelligent caution in the Byrd fight, his apparent lack of interest in erasing this blot from his record, figuratively speaking, will lead to speculation. The stamina, too, which sees his mouth a gaping maw from the second round in many of his fights, will always be open to question, until proven otherwise. As Larry Merchant noted "that thing [he] does with [his] mouth", creates the impression that this is a behemoth desperately waiting to be taken, some robotic, shallow-breathing dinosaur waiting for imposed extinction.
All of these flaws in Klitschko’s armoury (along with his dislike of moving to his right, something the Williams camp noted and spectacularly failed to capitalise on) carve the impression of a champion living on borrowed time. Unfortunately for lovers of the sport, the one man who stood a chance of deposing him is now retired and at least three years past his peak, while the next best bet is an overweight middle who would be attempting more of a gamble than a two-round Corrie Sanders. Rahman, his next, oft-postponed opponent, is believed to have a good chance, though this seems more to rely on the fact that he pulled an upset over another demotivated giant, and a recent four-round win over the unheralded Kali Meehan (a fighter despatched by the equally-unheralded Williams in seconds). Chris Byrd, said to relish a rematch opportunity, was more adept at avoiding Vitali’s punches than delivering any of his own, though the technical win would make him a viable candidate for a match-up, as would Brewster in terms of family honour.
But a champion can only be as good as his competition, and even a pre-exile Ali had largely uncompetitive rivals. (Not that I’d ever compare the likes of Sonny Liston, Zora Folley and Henry Cooper with Douglas, Sanders and Williams). Only with his who’s who of greats in his second reign did Ali really cement his reputation, and sadly no such roll call of talent presently exists.
So... Vitali Klitschko. Is he any good? Beats me.
I've been worried about that myself, it's a lose-lose situation for Tszyu... even if he wins he gets a thousand Manc scallys filling him in.
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