More than eight months ago, I joined a moratorium on writing about titlists in the heavyweight division. The idea was simple. Until the four heavyweight champs began fighting one another and unifying titles, it was wrong to dignify their matches with previews, reports, interviews or opinion columns.
Looks like it worked. Or something did.
Last May, when the moratorium nearly got media credentials revoked, there were four heavyweight titlists. Wladimir Klitschko wore the IBF belt. Oleg Maskaev had absconded with the WBC’s strap. Shannon Briggs was about to lose the WBO title. And Ruslan Chagaev had recently become the WBA’s standard bearer.
None of those four guys cared about a moratorium. But Sultan Ibragimov’s manager did. One week later, Ibragimov decisioned Briggs to become the new WBO champ. Then came a genuine effort to make a unification bout for Ibragimov’s first title defense.
A few weeks from now, on February 23 in Madison Square Garden, Ibragimov’s unification quest will become a reality when he battles Klitschko to determine the WBO and IBF’s joint titlist, on HBO (not pay-per-view).
Then the moratorium is over, and all is right again in the heavyweight division? Yes and no.
Ibragimov-Klitschko will be the most meaningful heavyweight fight since Lennox Lewis retired in 2003. But we’ll be only halfway there. To get even a short break from the havoc of boxing’s sanctioning bodies, we’re going to need a recognized heavyweight champion.
In a somewhat ironic twist the way for a champion to grow bigger than the belts he wears is by accumulating more of them. Once a heavyweight unifies all the titles, or beats someone who did, he no longer needs organizations to recognize him. Does anyone recall what belts Lewis wore in the ring against Mike Tyson?
Here’s a better question for a heavyweight titlist to ask himself: When a sports fan anywhere in the world hears the word “boxing” does my face spring immediately to mind? If the answer is no, you’re not the heavyweight champion.
Or to put things in financial terms, when the business of boxing looks past three or four heavyweight title fights to a junior middleweight rematch in September, no heavyweight is champion of the world.
That’s not Ibragimov’s fault, though. Later this month, Ibragimov will make his second fight as the WBO’s titlist and his first unification match. Klitschko, conversely, will make his ninth fight as a heavyweight titlist – between his WBO and IBF reigns – and his first unification match. But anyone thinking Ibragimov is thrice as eager to unify as Klitschko is wrong.
It’s actually a bit worse than that. See, while Klitschko lined up a lucrative sparring match with Lamon Brewster last July, Ibragimov courted Chagaev. That is, Ibragimov tried to fight a WBO/WBA unification match in his first title defense. Only after Chagaev backed out did Ibragimov defend his title against the 44 year-old Evander Holyfield.
Ibragimov may not be the heavyweight division’s most talented pugilist. But as our own Mike Swann noted, “Ibragimov is a versatile boxer/puncher who continually finds ways to win.” That could cease to be true, though, when he puts his undefeated record against the man who is the heavyweight division’s most talented pugilist. Klitschko should prove to be too big and fast for Ibragimov.
Though boxing handicappers are discouraged from playing the common-opponents game, it’s hard to overlook the case of Ray Austin. In 2006, Ibragimov went 12 rounds with Austin and settled for a draw. Seven months later, Klitschko needed only a round and a half to knock Austin out.
Klitschko is favored to become the IBF/WBO champion. But Ibragimov has never lost, or come close to losing the way Klitschko has. If Ibragimov is somehow able to swim through Klitschko’s excellent jab, he’ll come to a soft chin and a fragile mind. Otherwise, Klitschko will leave Madison Square Garden twice the champion he is now.
It would be wonderful if Klitschko’s first fight as IBF/WBO champ were for the WBA or WBC title. But that’s unlikely. Instead, Klitschko probably will return to cherry picking mandatory challengers – thrilled at having twice as many to choose from.
One such mandatory challenger was established two weeks ago when Alexander Povetkin decisioned Eddie Chambers in an IBF title eliminator bout. Reviews of Povetkin’s performance were mixed. Chambers was widely decried for being inactive during the fight’s second half. Most of this criticism was valid, though some of it may have missed its mark slightly.
Aficionados who watched Povetkin-Chambers noted how Chambers jarred Povetkin with right crosses. They wondered what would happen if those same punches came from Klitschko. But that may be underestimating both Povetkin and Chambers a bit.
A number of Chambers’ right hands were counterpunches, thrown over Povetkin’s jab. There’s a reason Chambers’ nickname is “Fast Eddie.” Klitschko, too, is relatively fast. But when was the last time Klitschko rolled under a jab and fired a counter right over it?
Here’s another question: Could Povetkin possibly have come out of the Russian boxing system with world championships and an Olympic gold medal if he didn’t know how to parry a right cross from a tall European?
The more important issue for Povetkin – as it is with any Klitschko opponent – is power. How hard does Povetkin hit? Since Povetkin was unable to hurt Chambers with any of the hundred punches he landed, some now doubt Povetkin’s power. But Chambers’ defense is unorthodox and difficult to solve.
Klitschko’s defense, meanwhile, is perfectly orthodox. Lead hand high and outstretched, chin well back of his front foot. Against Klitschko, in other words, Povetkin would likely see a style he’s seen a hundred times before.
Povetkin looked far from invincible against Chambers. And Klitschko certainly hasn’t beaten Ibragimov yet. Still, the smart money is on Klitschko. So, depending on how many dents Ibragimov is able to put in Klitschko’s chin, Povetkin might want to enforce his IBF mandatory challenge sooner than expected.
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