RING ratings update: Is the Klitschkos' dominance good for boxing?
Posted Sep. 28, 2009 at 10:53pm
By Doug Fischer
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The focus of the boxing world was on the heavyweights and Vitali Klitschko’s anticipated clash with Chris Arreola this past weekend, however the Ukrainian giant’s one-sided stoppage of the game American contender prevented any sort of shakeup in the division.
Klitschko’s utter dominance for 10 rounds further solidified his No. 1 rating in THE RING’s heavyweight rankings, just below his brother Wladimir, the recognized champion of the division.
Arreola’s valiant effort enabled him to retain the No. 6-rating he brought into Saturday’s fight when he was an undefeated heavyweight hopeful. However, the brutally efficient manner in which Arreola was handled by Klitschko reminded the boxing public -- American fans in particular -- just how formidable the 38-year-old titleholder is.
Klitschko showed no signs of getting old during his 10-round move-and-counter punch exhibition against Arreola, and the 6-foot-7 1/2 boxer-puncher did not express any desire to retire soon during his immediate post-fight interviews.
However, Klitschko reportedly told a Ukrainian news organization that he only planned to fight “two or three more times” before hanging up his gloves.
Tom Loeffler, the managing director of Klitschko’s promotional company, K2 Promotions, told RingTV.com that he is unaware of any retirement timeline and says the veteran will at least be around through 2010.
“With Vitali it’s pretty much how his body reacts,” Loeffler said. “He’s 38, so we take it fight by fight and go by how he feels, but he had a great training camp for Arreola. (His trainer) Fritz (Sdunek) said he looked the best, physically and in terms of conditioning, that he’s ever seen.
“There were rumors that he hurt his knee in training, but I can assure you that he was 100 percent healthy. So, if he continues to be healthy, I think he’ll continue boxing for a few years.”
With his younger brother, who is only 33, seemingly improving with every bout, it appears that boxing fans are stuck with the Klitschkos at the top the heavyweight division.
Is that good or bad for the sport?
“I’ll answer that question with another question,” said boxing writer and historian Cliff Rold. “The question is, how much worse would the heavyweight division be without the Klitschko brothers?”
Rold, an active member of THE RING’s Ratings Advisory Panel and the BWAA, makes a good point.
As bad as the heavyweight division currently is it would absolutely be the pits without the Klitschko brothers. There are no heavyweights in THE RING’s Pound-for-Pound Ratings, but the Klitschkos have earned consideration with their continued dominance.
Wladimir is No. 10 on the monthly Yahoo! Sports pound-for-pound rankings. Vitali isn’t, but he received four votes from the rankings’ panel of boxing writers following his TKO of Arreola.
No other active heavyweight receives such consideration. No other heavyweights are considered elite.
However, because there is such an apparent disparity in talent, skill, size and athleticism between the brothers and the rest of the division there doesn’t seem to be any challenges for them on the horizon.
And without worthy competition for them, where’s the interest? Why should anyone care about what used to be boxing’s glamor division?
Wouldn’t the sport be better if the heavyweight division was without the Ukrainian twin terrors, which would allow the rest of the contenders to fight each other in equal matchups?
“No, not really,” Rold said. “The division isn’t just awful in terms of talent, it’s awful in terms of styles. Aside from Chris Arreola and David Haye, nobody else has an entertaining style. If we matched most of the Top 10 or Top 15 together, we would get a lot of boring, ugly matches.”
Rold has a point. Without the Klitschkos, the division could become the way it was in the mid-1980s, when a marginalized Larry Holmes was getting long in the tooth and before a young Mike Tyson emerged as a dominating force.
During this dark period, which lasted from 1983 to 1986, the division had even matchups, but most of the fights were tepid affairs between underachievers. The contenders of the day -- Gerrie Coetzee, Tim Witherspoon, Pinklon Thomas, Greg Page, Tony Tubbs and Trevor Berbick -- passed around the alphabet belts like a hot potato.
Now the division has a real world champion and a No. 1 contender who appears even more unbeatable than his brother. There’s no chaos in the division. But could too much order at the top lessen interest in the heavyweights?
“That’s an interesting question,” said Loeffler. “Obviously I’m of the opinion that the Klitschkos are good for boxing, but if it’s true that there are no decent challengers for them, in the ring or from a marketing standpoint, well, then that’s not so good. That hurts the sport.”
More than a few American boxing writers believe there would be more interest in the heavyweight division if the Klitschkos weren’t around. Some point out that they fight in the U.S. so infrequently that it‘s like they aren’t around. The problem is that they’ve taken the heavyweight titles with them to Germany, where they made their name and enjoy star status.
Loeffler says that belief and attitude among the U.S. media is a narrow perspective.
“Boxing’s an international sport,” he said. “You have to look at the Klitschkos from a global perspective. It doesn’t make sense for them not to fight in Germany. It’s simple economics. RTL (a major German network) pays more money than HBO. The network also invests heavily in the live experience at the Klitschkos’ fights, making sure the fans in the arenas get fireworks and pyrotechnic shows to enhance the fights.
“The Klitschkos get better TV ratings than the German national soccer team. They average 10 million viewers for their fights. That’s a 60 share of the national audience. Wladimir attracted 60,000 fans to a soccer stadium in Germany (against Ruslan Chagaev in June). Oscar De La Hoya never put than many fans in the seats in his two stadium fights. Mike Tyson never fought in a stadium.
“In Germany, there’s Max Schmeling, and then the Klitschkos as far as beloved heavyweights," Loeffler went on. "In Europe as a whole, there’s never been a heavyweight champion as popular as the Klitschko brothers are now.”
However, Loeffler admits that the U.S. market is very important to any world-class fighter’s success and legacy, which the Klitschkos are very conscious of.
“That’s why we made the fight with Arreola,” said Loeffler. “Arreola was a marketable opponent. He was the WBC’s No. 1 contender, he was undefeated, HBO was pushing him and he had a fan following in L.A. So it made sense for that fight to happen and for it to take place at Staples Center.”
Looking at the field now that Arreola has been eliminated, Loeffler admits that K2 Promotions will not have an easy time finding another challenger as easy to sell to the public as the Mexican-American slugger.
“To be honest, the best opponent for Vitali, as far as creating an event, would be Lennox Lewis,” he said, only half-joking. “It’s too bad he’s retired for good because there’s not really one standout opponent for either brother.”
Rold wonders whether the Klitschkos really need a worthy dance partner.
“They’re superstars in Germany,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who they fight there, they will still sellout the arena. But I think they do alright in America, too.
“They’re not stars (in the U.S.), but fight fans know who they are. Chris Arreola did a lot to sell their fight, but so did Vitali. He’s known in Southern California. He fought at Staples twice and drew large crowds. I think he sold tickets on Saturday, too. The fans know he’s good. He’s respected.
“Wladimir sold out Madison Square Garden when he fought Sultan Ibragimov in New York City last year, and nobody had heard of Ibragimov.”
However, Ibragimov laid a Moscow-sized egg in that fight, which was as boring as it was lopsided.
Despite the respect and relative popularity the brothers have, Loeffler says finding viable opponents for both Klitschkos is vital to their continued success. Who those heavyweights are is anyone’s guess, he added.
“There’s Eddie Chambers and Alexander Povetkin,” Loeffer said, mentioning THE RING’s No. 3- and No. 2-rated contenders, “and we’ll see who else climbs the ladder.”
Rold believes Chambers and Povetkin are worthy challengers, at least for the champ.
“I think there’s a decent chance for Chambers to upset Wladimir,” he said. “I used to think he was like a right-handed Chris Byrd, but he doesn’t really fight like him. He’s an aggressive boxer who has decent power now that he‘s in better shape. I doubted him because he was in bad shape for so long, but he was in shape for Alexander Dimitrenko, a skilled modern-sized heavyweight that he walked down and dropped twice with left hooks and body shots.
“I know Wladimir is better than Dimitrenko but I think there’s still some give in him when the going gets tough. Povetkin is not ready yet and he knows it, which is why he’s been sitting on his mandatory ranking and why he hired Teddy Atlas. He wants to get better before he fights Wladimir. If he can get down to 215, I think 225 is too heavy for him, and shore up his defense a little bit, I think he can give Wladimir a good fight.
“I wouldn’t give either guy much shot at beating Vitali. I don’t give the opponents that have been talked about for him -- Kevin Johnson and Oleg Maskaev -- any shot at all. Vitali could have proved to be a great fighter had he been promoted better in the early part of his career, if he had come to the U.S. earlier. He just missed the tail end of Tyson/Holyfield/Bowe era and the young version of Vitali probably could have taken advantage of them in the late 1990s.”
Without names that can sell like Tyson, Holyfield and Bowe once did at heavyweight, Loeffler said the Klitschkos might have to look below the heavyweight division.
“Roy Jones has called out the brothers more than once, even recently,” he said. “I know he has fights with Danny Green and Bernard Hopkins scheduled, and he probably isn’t serious, but you never know.
“There’s also Tomasz Adamek. He’s an interesting proposition. He’s dominated the cruiserweight division and he brings his fans to the table. If he beats Andrew Golota (on Oct. 24) and decides to stay at heavyweight, that’s a fight I think could be made with either brother and I think it would be an event. It would be a great fight for Madison Square Garden with the Polish fans from New York and surrounding areas, but I think it could be a stadium fight in Europe.”
Only time will tell whether Adamek can develop into a bona fide heavyweight contender or whether Chambers and Povetkin have matured enough to give either Klitschko a challenge.
For now fans will have to accept that the Klitschkos are the class of the division and will probably stay on top for awhile.
“In the absence of good fighters in the top 10, I’ll take two good fighters at the top of the division until good fighters come along, and they will come along eventually,” Rold said.
RING RATINGS UPDATE:
There may not have been any changes in the heavyweight division but there a few new additions to some of the lower weight classes over the weekend.
MIDDLEWEIGHT:
Thanks to his one-round knockout of Amin Asikainen, previously unranked Matthew Macklin replaces Asikainen at No. 6. Asikainen exits.
JUNIOR MIDDLEWEIGHTS:
James Kirkland (No. 9 last week) departs after pleading guilty to gun possession as a convicted felon and being sentenced to two years in prison. Kirkland’s exit allows Jamie Moore to advance from No. 10 to No. 9, and Alfredo Angulo to return at No. 10.
LIGHTWEIGHTS:
Former world champion Joel Casamayor (No. 1 last week) exits because he has not fought in more than a year. His absence allows everybody rated No. 2 through No. 10 last week to climb one rung each. The void at No. 10 is filled by David Daiz, who returned to action, following a long layoff, to decision Jesus Chavez.
JUNIOR FEATHERWEIGHTS:
Poonsawat Kratingaenggym’s third-round knockout of Bernard Dunne dropped Dunne (No. 5 last week) to No. 6, which raised Toskiaki Nishioka (No. 6 last week) to No. 5.
Doug Fischer can be reached at dougiefischer@yahoo.com
Klitschko’s utter dominance for 10 rounds further solidified his No. 1 rating in THE RING’s heavyweight rankings, just below his brother Wladimir, the recognized champion of the division.
Arreola’s valiant effort enabled him to retain the No. 6-rating he brought into Saturday’s fight when he was an undefeated heavyweight hopeful. However, the brutally efficient manner in which Arreola was handled by Klitschko reminded the boxing public -- American fans in particular -- just how formidable the 38-year-old titleholder is.
Klitschko showed no signs of getting old during his 10-round move-and-counter punch exhibition against Arreola, and the 6-foot-7 1/2 boxer-puncher did not express any desire to retire soon during his immediate post-fight interviews.
However, Klitschko reportedly told a Ukrainian news organization that he only planned to fight “two or three more times” before hanging up his gloves.
Tom Loeffler, the managing director of Klitschko’s promotional company, K2 Promotions, told RingTV.com that he is unaware of any retirement timeline and says the veteran will at least be around through 2010.
“With Vitali it’s pretty much how his body reacts,” Loeffler said. “He’s 38, so we take it fight by fight and go by how he feels, but he had a great training camp for Arreola. (His trainer) Fritz (Sdunek) said he looked the best, physically and in terms of conditioning, that he’s ever seen.
“There were rumors that he hurt his knee in training, but I can assure you that he was 100 percent healthy. So, if he continues to be healthy, I think he’ll continue boxing for a few years.”
With his younger brother, who is only 33, seemingly improving with every bout, it appears that boxing fans are stuck with the Klitschkos at the top the heavyweight division.
Is that good or bad for the sport?
“I’ll answer that question with another question,” said boxing writer and historian Cliff Rold. “The question is, how much worse would the heavyweight division be without the Klitschko brothers?”
Rold, an active member of THE RING’s Ratings Advisory Panel and the BWAA, makes a good point.
As bad as the heavyweight division currently is it would absolutely be the pits without the Klitschko brothers. There are no heavyweights in THE RING’s Pound-for-Pound Ratings, but the Klitschkos have earned consideration with their continued dominance.
Wladimir is No. 10 on the monthly Yahoo! Sports pound-for-pound rankings. Vitali isn’t, but he received four votes from the rankings’ panel of boxing writers following his TKO of Arreola.
No other active heavyweight receives such consideration. No other heavyweights are considered elite.
However, because there is such an apparent disparity in talent, skill, size and athleticism between the brothers and the rest of the division there doesn’t seem to be any challenges for them on the horizon.
And without worthy competition for them, where’s the interest? Why should anyone care about what used to be boxing’s glamor division?
Wouldn’t the sport be better if the heavyweight division was without the Ukrainian twin terrors, which would allow the rest of the contenders to fight each other in equal matchups?
“No, not really,” Rold said. “The division isn’t just awful in terms of talent, it’s awful in terms of styles. Aside from Chris Arreola and David Haye, nobody else has an entertaining style. If we matched most of the Top 10 or Top 15 together, we would get a lot of boring, ugly matches.”
Rold has a point. Without the Klitschkos, the division could become the way it was in the mid-1980s, when a marginalized Larry Holmes was getting long in the tooth and before a young Mike Tyson emerged as a dominating force.
During this dark period, which lasted from 1983 to 1986, the division had even matchups, but most of the fights were tepid affairs between underachievers. The contenders of the day -- Gerrie Coetzee, Tim Witherspoon, Pinklon Thomas, Greg Page, Tony Tubbs and Trevor Berbick -- passed around the alphabet belts like a hot potato.
Now the division has a real world champion and a No. 1 contender who appears even more unbeatable than his brother. There’s no chaos in the division. But could too much order at the top lessen interest in the heavyweights?
“That’s an interesting question,” said Loeffler. “Obviously I’m of the opinion that the Klitschkos are good for boxing, but if it’s true that there are no decent challengers for them, in the ring or from a marketing standpoint, well, then that’s not so good. That hurts the sport.”
More than a few American boxing writers believe there would be more interest in the heavyweight division if the Klitschkos weren’t around. Some point out that they fight in the U.S. so infrequently that it‘s like they aren’t around. The problem is that they’ve taken the heavyweight titles with them to Germany, where they made their name and enjoy star status.
Loeffler says that belief and attitude among the U.S. media is a narrow perspective.
“Boxing’s an international sport,” he said. “You have to look at the Klitschkos from a global perspective. It doesn’t make sense for them not to fight in Germany. It’s simple economics. RTL (a major German network) pays more money than HBO. The network also invests heavily in the live experience at the Klitschkos’ fights, making sure the fans in the arenas get fireworks and pyrotechnic shows to enhance the fights.
“The Klitschkos get better TV ratings than the German national soccer team. They average 10 million viewers for their fights. That’s a 60 share of the national audience. Wladimir attracted 60,000 fans to a soccer stadium in Germany (against Ruslan Chagaev in June). Oscar De La Hoya never put than many fans in the seats in his two stadium fights. Mike Tyson never fought in a stadium.
“In Germany, there’s Max Schmeling, and then the Klitschkos as far as beloved heavyweights," Loeffler went on. "In Europe as a whole, there’s never been a heavyweight champion as popular as the Klitschko brothers are now.”
However, Loeffler admits that the U.S. market is very important to any world-class fighter’s success and legacy, which the Klitschkos are very conscious of.
“That’s why we made the fight with Arreola,” said Loeffler. “Arreola was a marketable opponent. He was the WBC’s No. 1 contender, he was undefeated, HBO was pushing him and he had a fan following in L.A. So it made sense for that fight to happen and for it to take place at Staples Center.”
Looking at the field now that Arreola has been eliminated, Loeffler admits that K2 Promotions will not have an easy time finding another challenger as easy to sell to the public as the Mexican-American slugger.
“To be honest, the best opponent for Vitali, as far as creating an event, would be Lennox Lewis,” he said, only half-joking. “It’s too bad he’s retired for good because there’s not really one standout opponent for either brother.”
Rold wonders whether the Klitschkos really need a worthy dance partner.
“They’re superstars in Germany,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who they fight there, they will still sellout the arena. But I think they do alright in America, too.
“They’re not stars (in the U.S.), but fight fans know who they are. Chris Arreola did a lot to sell their fight, but so did Vitali. He’s known in Southern California. He fought at Staples twice and drew large crowds. I think he sold tickets on Saturday, too. The fans know he’s good. He’s respected.
“Wladimir sold out Madison Square Garden when he fought Sultan Ibragimov in New York City last year, and nobody had heard of Ibragimov.”
However, Ibragimov laid a Moscow-sized egg in that fight, which was as boring as it was lopsided.
Despite the respect and relative popularity the brothers have, Loeffler says finding viable opponents for both Klitschkos is vital to their continued success. Who those heavyweights are is anyone’s guess, he added.
“There’s Eddie Chambers and Alexander Povetkin,” Loeffer said, mentioning THE RING’s No. 3- and No. 2-rated contenders, “and we’ll see who else climbs the ladder.”
Rold believes Chambers and Povetkin are worthy challengers, at least for the champ.
“I think there’s a decent chance for Chambers to upset Wladimir,” he said. “I used to think he was like a right-handed Chris Byrd, but he doesn’t really fight like him. He’s an aggressive boxer who has decent power now that he‘s in better shape. I doubted him because he was in bad shape for so long, but he was in shape for Alexander Dimitrenko, a skilled modern-sized heavyweight that he walked down and dropped twice with left hooks and body shots.
“I know Wladimir is better than Dimitrenko but I think there’s still some give in him when the going gets tough. Povetkin is not ready yet and he knows it, which is why he’s been sitting on his mandatory ranking and why he hired Teddy Atlas. He wants to get better before he fights Wladimir. If he can get down to 215, I think 225 is too heavy for him, and shore up his defense a little bit, I think he can give Wladimir a good fight.
“I wouldn’t give either guy much shot at beating Vitali. I don’t give the opponents that have been talked about for him -- Kevin Johnson and Oleg Maskaev -- any shot at all. Vitali could have proved to be a great fighter had he been promoted better in the early part of his career, if he had come to the U.S. earlier. He just missed the tail end of Tyson/Holyfield/Bowe era and the young version of Vitali probably could have taken advantage of them in the late 1990s.”
Without names that can sell like Tyson, Holyfield and Bowe once did at heavyweight, Loeffler said the Klitschkos might have to look below the heavyweight division.
“Roy Jones has called out the brothers more than once, even recently,” he said. “I know he has fights with Danny Green and Bernard Hopkins scheduled, and he probably isn’t serious, but you never know.
“There’s also Tomasz Adamek. He’s an interesting proposition. He’s dominated the cruiserweight division and he brings his fans to the table. If he beats Andrew Golota (on Oct. 24) and decides to stay at heavyweight, that’s a fight I think could be made with either brother and I think it would be an event. It would be a great fight for Madison Square Garden with the Polish fans from New York and surrounding areas, but I think it could be a stadium fight in Europe.”
Only time will tell whether Adamek can develop into a bona fide heavyweight contender or whether Chambers and Povetkin have matured enough to give either Klitschko a challenge.
For now fans will have to accept that the Klitschkos are the class of the division and will probably stay on top for awhile.
“In the absence of good fighters in the top 10, I’ll take two good fighters at the top of the division until good fighters come along, and they will come along eventually,” Rold said.
RING RATINGS UPDATE:
There may not have been any changes in the heavyweight division but there a few new additions to some of the lower weight classes over the weekend.
MIDDLEWEIGHT:
Thanks to his one-round knockout of Amin Asikainen, previously unranked Matthew Macklin replaces Asikainen at No. 6. Asikainen exits.
JUNIOR MIDDLEWEIGHTS:
James Kirkland (No. 9 last week) departs after pleading guilty to gun possession as a convicted felon and being sentenced to two years in prison. Kirkland’s exit allows Jamie Moore to advance from No. 10 to No. 9, and Alfredo Angulo to return at No. 10.
LIGHTWEIGHTS:
Former world champion Joel Casamayor (No. 1 last week) exits because he has not fought in more than a year. His absence allows everybody rated No. 2 through No. 10 last week to climb one rung each. The void at No. 10 is filled by David Daiz, who returned to action, following a long layoff, to decision Jesus Chavez.
JUNIOR FEATHERWEIGHTS:
Poonsawat Kratingaenggym’s third-round knockout of Bernard Dunne dropped Dunne (No. 5 last week) to No. 6, which raised Toskiaki Nishioka (No. 6 last week) to No. 5.
Doug Fischer can be reached at dougiefischer@yahoo.com
