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Wladimir Klitschko Promises To Win November Bout with Calvin Brock, Pledges $250,000 To UNESCO Charity
IBF Heavyweight Champion Dr. Wladimir “Steelhammer” Klitschko, 46-3 (41), will make his first title defense against undefeated Calvin “The Boxing Banker” Brock, 29-0 (22), at Madison Square Garden in New York City on November 11, 2006. Women’s super middleweight and light heavyweight champion Laila Ali, 22-0 (19), the youngest daughter of former World Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali, will be the co-feature as she makes her debut at Madison Square Garden.
The heavyweight championship bout will be the first title defense for Klitschko since he stopped Chris Byrd with a seventh round TKO to win the IBF Championship on April 22, 2006. This event will also mark his fiftieth bout and his tenth anniversary as a professional fighter.
Michael Buffer first introduced the light heavyweight champion Laila Ali. Ali was clearly more comfortable being called a super middleweight rather than a light heavyweight stating, “I’m a super middleweight and a LIGHT heavyweight. I’m really a super middleweight, let’s make that clear.”
Ali was not shy about putting HBO on the spot about her bout not being televised, “I think you should know I am the co-main event of this fight but if you are not at the Garden you will NOT see my fight on HBO, so I just want to make that clear so that everybody knows that. They are not going to see me on HBO. HBO does not show women’s boxing… yet. But, hopefully they are going to change that.”
Although an opponent has not officially been announced for Ali’s debut at the “Mecca of Boxing” she guarantees an exciting bout, “I can scrap, Ok? What my daddy had was passed down to me. I’m not my father; I’m not trying to be. But I am a fighter and I’m coming here and going to whup somebody good here at the Garden.”
Buffer then introduced Wladimir Klitschko’s challenger, the undefeated heavyweight Calvin Brock. Brock commented on the excitement of Buffer announcing his name to the podium, “The way Michael just announced my name you would think we were getting ready to box tonight.”
Brock seemed a little nervous at the podium and was gracious in thanking Klitschko for the opportunity to fight for the heavyweight championship. After thanking the promoters and HBO, he went on to say, “I will continue on to be undefeated on November 11 and see my dreams come true of becoming the heavyweight champion of the world.”
Buffer announced Wladimir Klitschko as the final speaker to the podium. The Ukrainian native appeared poised and confident as he described his challenger, “I want to say that Calvin Brock is a really strong fighter, an experienced fighter with really good basics which he got from the amateurs, he is young and he is willing to win this fight. He wants to be champion of the world.”
Klitschko spoke about the significance of his first title defense being at Madison Square Garden and announced the clear winner for the upcoming event. “Thank you very much for everybody who are going to be at the arena, because part of your ticket that you are going to pay, part of this money will go to charity, to the United Nations Project UNESCO for education…It matters to me who will win in the main event but I promise you children in Africa are going to win definitely and I guarantee $250,000 are going to this charity.”
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