By John Hively
I am tired of hearing what a lousy champion Vitali Klitschko was. Hogwash is what I say to those who denigrate this fine, but injury plagued fighter. Upon the retirement of Lennox Lewis, the Ukrainian giant was the finest heavyweight around.
Following his loss on cuts to Lewis in 2003, in a fight the challenger was winning on all scorecards, Vitali easily knocked out undefeated, and top ten ranked heavyweight contender, Kirk Johnson in two one-sided rounds, clearly establishing himself as the main threat to Lewis. Rather than face his chief challenger in a rematch, the champ elected to retire. Lewis had come in heavy and out of shape for his fight with Klitschko, and perhaps he found the irksomeness of training to be an intolerable mountain to climb once more.
When Lewis retired, Klitschko was the number one ranked contender for the heavyweight title, according to the Ring Magazine. Their ratings policy allowed for the number one and number three contenders to fight for any vacant world titles. So when Vitali was matched with the Ring’s number three contender, Corrie Sanders, for the vacant World Boxing Council title, perhaps it made sense for the editors of the Ring to award the championship to the winner. Given boxing politics, it was highly unlikely the number two contender, Chris Byrd, an alphabet title holder, and one of the best heavyweights of his era, would ever be matched with the winner of the Klitschko/Sanders fight, leaving the title with several titleholders, perhaps for years.
A southpaw, Sanders had arguably the fastest hands in the heavyweight division, along with a lethal clout, and good punch absorbing abilities. In his fights, he tended to aggressively assault his adversaries in attempts to overwhelm them quickly. His speed and power allowed him to stop twenty-four of his thirty knockout victims inside of two rounds, but his whirlwind starts often left him winded as the rounds accumulated. He had been badly mismanaged, and fights for the past several years had been few and far between.
His last fight prior to this championship battle was a year earlier, a sensational second round destruction of Vitali’s younger brother, Wladimir, who had been the ranked the number one contender at the time.
On April, 24 2004, the new king was crowned when Vitali stopped Sanders in eight one-sided rounds. Klitschko’s jab blunted Corrie’s attacks, his straight right hand landed with thudding regularity. He slowly broke his opponent down, until the referee was forced to stop what had become a massacre in round eight. Some people gave Sanders the first round on the basis of a big left hand he landed to Vitali’s jaw late in the round. Upon being struck, the future champ moved backwards, out of harm’s way, and resumed sticking his jab and his straight right hands into Sanders already reddening face. From that point forward, the fight became increasingly one-sided.
By sticking with their policy, and recognizing the winner of this fight as champion, the Ring did every boxing fan a big favor because we know the magazine’s ratings are less politically determined than those of the various alphabet organizations. We know a fighter is the real champion of his division when the Rings says so.
Klitschko defended the title only once, on December 11, 2004, against Danny Williams, another top ten rated fighter. Williams entered the ring with a record of thirty-two wins, three losses, with twenty-seven knockouts. Despite the impressive record, he was manifestly a trial horse. He had received his rating on the basis of a fourth round stoppage of a washed up Mike Tyson. In their fight, the former champion had pummeled Williams unmercifully for most of the first round until injuring his knee. The damage made it difficult for Tyson to get leverage on his punches, and allowed Williams to turn the fight around. He finished off Iron Mike in the fourth round.
Against the still improving Klitsckho, like most of the champion’s previous opponents, Williams was completely outclassed. Vitali’s jab was constantly in the challenger’s face, beating it with a rhythm similar to how a highly skilled player of drums would pound his instrument. Now and then, the champion would cross over with his highly accurate and powerful right cross, and as if to demonstrate to the world that there was more in his arsenal, he would land a thudding left hook. This fight was more of a torture session in which Klitsckho played the jailor, and Williams had unfortunately been cast into the character of the helpless victim. We did not know then that it would be the champion’s last fight.
In April 2005, Vitali was set to defend his championship against the former champion, Hasim Rahman. The challenger’s last significant win over a legitimate top ten rated fighter had been way back in April 2001, when he had won the heavyweight title with a knockout over an under trained and over confident Lennox Lewis. In the rematch, Lewis completely dominated his opponent before stopping him in the fourth round. In his next fight, Rahman lost to a nearly completely washed up Evander Holyfield.
He followed this dismal performance with a draw against the highly rated David Tua, a fight in which many viewers were of the opinion that Rahman had won. In his next fight, Hasim proceeded to lose a decision in an ugly and boring fight with John Ruiz, another alphabet champion. A jab and grab style of fighter, Ruiz possessed an uncanny ability to win fights against many of the best fighters of his time in the most unappealing of ways, at least from a spectator’s point-of-view. From this disaster, Rahman received a very carefully protected buildup against second and third tier boxers, and was suddenly awarded a fight with the champion.
Klitschko was injured during training and the fight was postponed. Throughout the year, other injuries cropped up and continued to haunt the champion. In November 2005, just a week before he was scheduled to defend against Rahman, Vitali torn cartilage in his knee, necessitating surgery. He was expected to be out of action for nine months. So instead of sitting on his championship, he gracefully retired. But that retirement left many questions.
Vitali left the sport without providing us with something to demonstrate a legacy. Was he one of the great heavyweights of all time? By any standard the answer is “no he was not.” On the other hand, many former champions can hardly be considered “great.” And some of the greats really have meager records. Gene Tunny, for example, had a scanty record against top ten heavyweights; a win over Johnny Risko; two over a past his prime Jack Dempsey, and a stoppage of Tom Heeney. That was it. Michael Moorer also retired with a less than stellar heavyweight record, but no person I know of refers to him as a bum.
To one degree or another, the same is true of Bob Fitzimmons, Max Baer, Riddick Bowe, Michael Spinks, Jack Sharkey, Floyd Patterson and several others. These champions were solid fighters, respected, and good enough to hold the world heavyweight championship. And so was Vital Klitschko.
It is true that time ran out on the Ukrainian. His injuries, his thirty-four years of age, as well as boxing politics, conspired to ensure that he never unified the heavyweight championship, and this is credited with being a mark against him.
But it should also be recalled that Larry Holmes, despite a seven year reign, never unified the championship either, and preferred to defend against challengers like trial horses Scott LeDoux, Alfredo Evangelista, Scott Frank, Leroy Jones and Lorenzo Zanon, or any number of inexperienced fighters like twelve fight pro Tim Witherspoon, Marvis Frazier, James Smith, Ozzie Ocasio, Gerry Cooney and several others. It should also be recollected that he never defended against legitimate contenders such as Greg Page, Gerry Coetzee and Michael Dokes. But few people criticize Holmes for these shortcomings. He is rightly recognized as one of the great heavyweights of all time.
Holmes was the best heavyweight of his times, just like Klitschko was arguably the best of his times, immediately following the retirement of Lewis. Would anybody pick Chris Byrd or John Ruiz to beat a prime Vitali? James Toney would surely have been a solid underdog against the giant Ukrainian, as coincidently Rahman was prior to his scheduled fights with the champion.
For all of their greatness, Ezzard Charles and Jersey Joe Walcott never reigned over a unified heavyweight championship either. After Joe Louis retired, the winner of the Lee Savold/Bruce Woodcock fight was recognized in Europe as being for the vacant world championship; whereas in the United States, Charles was acclaimed as being the champ by winning the first of his four fights with Walcott. A unified championship did not occur until Rocky Marciano knocked out Jersey Joe in 1952. Walcott only ruled the heavyweights, at least those in the United States, for a year and a half, and had but one successful defense, a disputed victory over Charles, and yet few people have belittled his skills and career as they have Vitali’s .
This is not to suggest that Klitschko is one of the great heavyweights. A year and a half reign and one defense rules him out from such lofty consideration. Dominating wins over three top ten fighters hardly qualify him for a placement alongside the greats. But he was hardly the cowardly bum some critics continue to make him out to be. Winning thirty-five out of thirty-seven, with thirty-four knockouts, is not a bad record, especially considering that he was just coming into his prime.
Perhaps Vitali will return after his injuries heal. Perhaps then he can take on Rahman, Byrd, Ruiz and Toney and establish a legacy, and perhaps a claim to greatness. Based on what he did in the ring, he isn’t worthy of such honors now, but he doesn’t deserve the criticism he has received either. Vitali was a very formidable fighter, who might very well have proven to be stern opposition for any former champions. Furthermore, it is likely he would have beaten a fair number of them, including Rahman.