Wladmir Klitschko: Dreams Of Unifying The Heavyweight titles
IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (47-3, 42 KO’s) appears to have no interest in fighting his IBF mandatory challenger Ray Austin, and instead, shooting for a unification bout with either, Oleg Maskaev, the WBC heavyweight champion, or Nikolay Valuev, the WBA heavyweight champion. Wladimir isn’t, however, calling out the newly crowned WBO heavyweight champion, Shannon Briggs, who recently knocked out Sergei Liakhovich in the 12th round, to take away his championship belt. Of the possibilities, the 7-foot Russian, Valuev, would easily be the most appealing for Wladimir, including with the public.
However, at this point, Valuev has shown no interest in fighting Wladmir, and really, why should he? If Valuev can make easy money beating opponents like Monte Barrett and Own Beck, why potentially throw it all away for one big pay day against Wladimir?
A bout with Masakev, although better than fighting Austin, is not something that Wladimir can count on, considering that Maskaev has other options, for example, Bernard Hopkins, the former middleweight and light heavyweight champion, is showing a great deal of interest in a fight with Maskaev. Certainly, a bout with Hopkins, it seems, would bring in more money than a fight with Wladimir, not to mention it would probably be far easier for Maskaev. Until things become clearer, I see Wladimir having to wait it out, and probably having to take on his IBF mandatory, Ray Austin.
A bout with Shannon Briggs, a fighter with quick hands and good knockout power, would probably be too dangerous for the tender-chinned Wladimir, hence his lack of interest in Briggs. While Briggs might have turned into a huge hulk of a fighter, thus drastically slowing down his offensive workrate, he still probably punches too hard for Wladimir. As Liakhovich found out, it doesn’t take a lot of shots for Briggs to end a fight. Worse than that, however, is the fact that Briggs carries his power late, so he would be a threat to Wladimir from the opening bell to the bitter finish.
For me, other than fight with Valuev, I see no point in Wladmir attempting to unify the titles with the other heavyweight champions, Maskaev and Briggs. Neither of these fighters are especially popular with the boxing public, making win over either of them a kind of empty accomplishment. Sure, it might look good on his boxing resume, but it wouldn’t bring the kind of money or fame that Wladimir seems to hope it will be. More importantly, they might actually beat him, given his weak chin.
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Posted November 28th, 2006 l 113 views
