Wladimir Klitschko We Salute You For Your Boxing Career & In Retirement!

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

Over in Europe you can become quite insular and detached from the rest of the world – right now there is a massive storm about the Maltese Boxing Council … – though the world can get mighty fixated upon you. Mind you we have been responsible for the start of two world wars so who can blame em!?!?

In terms of boxing we have been THE place over the last few years as some of our boxers cleaned up their weight division though the States, with its massive market and fan base remains the one place most of our boxers are desperate to break into – take Katie Taylor and Michael Conlan managing to get the Irish on their feet!

As the jewel in the crown of the boxing world the Heavyweight World Championship has always been a massive attraction for any country and any boxer because with it comes the plaudits, the admiration and the feeling that you have become THE best boxer in the business because of your size.

When the Ukrainian, former Olympic Champion from 1996 Wladimir Klitschko, 64-5, 53 KO’s, won the WBO belt in 2000, then lost it then went on to take the IBF belt in 2003 – against Chris Byrd – before proceeding to add to it through 9 ½ years of being THE guy at the head of that prestige, we all started to think that even the Americans should be given a chance to take back what many of us thought – at various times – was their own birth right. The heavyweight champions of the past – Tyson, Ali, Holyfield, Liston – to name but a few – made some of us think that the US of A was also the US of Heavyweights.

His tally of belts increased with the WBO belt in 2008 and the WBA belt in 2011.

The problem for the poor Americans was that there was nobody big enough or good enough to take on Wladimir and beat him. Many had tried – for 9 ½ years they had tried but each one failed and with an increasingly heavy heart we wondered if there would ever be anyone who could knock the guy to floor – otherwise we thought he would never lose that title. His style was not the most pleasing on the eye but over nearly a decade of total dominance it was highly effective. The bigger problem became that nobody cared. Then came 2015 and Tyson Fury; suddenly everybody cared.

Of course, we were wrong when this unorthodox and awkward gypsy came waltzing in and took all of his belts from around Klitschko’s waist. Tyson Fury did us all a favor – we got to see the invincible fall.
But we also got something else.

It was the weirdest thing. In the pantheon of strange this is way up there and it took until 2017 and the biggest fight in UK history for us to observe it.

Up until that time in London, the Klitschko legacy was going to be one of boredom purveyed and consistency despised. We did not like him because he was boring. He was a robot and he was not a true champion, they all said. There were plenty of insults flying about and especially when David Haye got a hold of the opportunity to lose to Wladimir, there was plenty of material dripping out the side of Haye’s mouth to aid people like me to feel justified in disliking the style of people like Dr Steelhammer.

But that night in Wembley, the guy who was a supreme athlete in his 40’s climbed into the ring, lost and then gained a reputation which he had always deserved but never achieved. THAT was the strange thing.

Wladimir Klitschko was no more a defensive pugilist than Floyd Mayweather, JR. He has been a champion for a lot longer than all but 1 Heavyweight Champion in history whilst the pretenders trained, sacrificed and then fell at the final hurdle. Wladimir Klitschko never hid. He faced them all with his face firmly set, after spending his time in training at his camp in Austria, giving each one the credit and the respect they deserved whilst people did not allow him either the credit nor the respect in return.

The fact was that it had become predictable and the number of bloated heavyweights who failed in his ring were beginning to get embarrassed until 2015 and Fury. His achievement, ironically like those of Klitschko have also not got the credit they deserve but then the stability in the Klitschko family, is quite the opposite of what exists in the Fury camp, giving the Fury’s an entirely different set of problems.

But that night Wladimir went in against a guy that had not gone beyond the 7th round professionally – had not gone past the 7th round in ANY fight, took him to the 11th and came close to knocking Anthony Joshua out with a vicious punch. He took the young gun on, knocked him down and came close to beating him. He showed heart and he displayed courage with his jab sending AJ to the canvas and a left hook that was back at its best. Unfortunately, his weakness – the lack of a killer instinct – may have been what lost him that fight. That he lost is immaterial now – he has started a revisionist history of his legacy, which is long overdue and very apposite.

Wladimir Klitschko was a worthy champion. He beat all the best in his division of his era and who challenged for his WBO, IBF, WBA, and Ring Magazine championship belts. The only reason he did not have the WBC is because his brother had it!

Over the next few weeks and months many articles shall be written about Wladimir, this can join them but it is time for me to do my own revision and look at the legacy of the Ukrainian heavyweights who dominated because they were the best – even though we did not think that anyone apart for the Americans should have the belts. Now we think the Brits should have them now… of course! In the meantime, happy retirement Wlad and as Francis Albert Sinatra, Mr Berkwitt’s go to guy for sentiment might have said, thanks

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