Read the debate intro and Loyal Homer’s opinion.
For anyone reading who doesn’t follow boxing, the scheduling is very similar to college football. (No, it’s not a boxer taking on a college football team. But, that would be interesting.) Some boxers schedule weak fighters, some boxers schedule tough fighters. Like the elite college football teams who refuse to schedule the Sisters of the Poor, some boxers refuse an opponent that doesn’t match their capabilities for a variety of reasons. One, it’s beneath them. Two, it’s not challenging and does not showcase their ability. Three, to be considered the best, they must beat the best. Then… there’s Wladimir Klitschko. He’d rather play the Sisters of the Poor.
It’s obvious that Klitschko refuses to fight the best fighters. If he was welcoming of that type of fight he would agree to fight his brother, Vitali, a current heavyweight title-holder and the closest thing Wladimir has to a legitimate opponent since their strength and technical attention to detail is similar. In other words, THAT would be a fair fight.
Instead, Wladimir patently rebuffed any attempt to preserve the respectability of himself and his sport when he refused to postpone his planned fight with potentially interesting opponent David Haye and take on a much less exciting, undertrained and therefore weakened, Ruslan Chagaev. What did Klitschko gain by forcing Chagaev to train in two weeks time, when it was only an additional 3 weeks to face Haye? Zip! Rather than continue training to reach the peak of performance readiness (though Loyal Homer would have you believe extra training is a BAD thing), Klitschko chose to have a lesser fight. That’s a bad approach to sports, no matter what sport an athlete is in. The objective is always to beat the best to prove you’re the best. Not take on a weakened opponent just to preserve some ridiculous notion that “it’d be cool to fight in front of a lot of people.” Those same people would have shown up for Haye (in fact, that’s who they originally paid to see) – and, they probably would have stayed for an entire fight, unlike the snooze fest Klitschko apparently preferred.
It’s not just athletic logic to “be the best you must beat the best” – it’s also good business. Who are the most famous athletes in sports? Across the board, they are all champions. Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Albert Pujols, Derek Jeter… the list is lengthy. But, as long as that list is, it does not include Wladimir Klitschko. He blew his chance to beat the best fighter that was willing to fight him, and continually refuses to box the only other fighter who could legitimize him as a true boxing great. To prove he is the best he must agree to meet the best whenever he can. He proves nothing by fighting a weaker opponent. If anything, he just wastes everyone’s time.
It boils down to ego. Klitschko wanted to fight in front of a large crowd, and nothing was going to prevent that – even if the fans were to be unwittingly subjected to a one-sided, borderline unfair fight due to Chagaev’s insufficient training. If Klitschko was truly interested in proving himself in a fair fight while angling to fight a challenging opponent, he would have accepted the postponed date. Instead, he decided to go with a big crowd he would lull to sleep before they finally awoke in the ninth round, saw that Klitschko was jabbing the ever-loving crap out of Chagaev, and would make their way to the exits. How is this a good decision? He’s managed to alienate fans trying to get into boxing, and bore the ones who are intensely loyal to the sport. Perhaps one of the 1,534,634,345,234 governing bodies should have stepped in and diplomatically forced Klitschko to wait for the better fight. Perhaps it is this situation that proves, yet again, why boxing needs to have a unified system capable of exerting the leverage necessary to preserve the sanctity of the sport. With a divided ruling class, boxing will never have the accountability and marketing horsepower necessary to return it to worldwide glory. But, maybe that’s a debate for another day.
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