Boxing Perspective: Wladimir Klitschko

I’m amazed. After Wladimir Klitschko’s KO victory over Tony Thompson in Hamburg, Germany, a week ago, he should have risen in the esteem of boxing fans.

Thompson was a credible threat whose only other loss occurred eight years ago. In a bout where Klitschko showed his ability to control an opponent, dictate a pace and reaffirm his punching power against said threat, he seems to have even eroded even further down the pound-for-pound list.

Perhaps fans are overly critical of him because of the “state” the division is in. Heavyweights aren’t as exciting as they’ve been in the past and compare weakly with their welterweight or super middleweight counterparts. But how much of that is fair?

Two years ago, no one was talking about the super middleweights, just the thimbleful of names who were in it. With fighters like Jermain Taylor moving up, Mikkel Kessler becoming known in the US and Kelly Pavlik straddling the fence between the super middleweight and middleweight divisions, it has spelled instant excitement whenever there is mention of anything at 168 pounds.

The welterweight division has always kept a rotating stable of elite fighters and quite frankly, is a lot deeper than heavyweight, and logic follows reason that it would have more elite fighters because it has more fighters.

But what are people not seeing when they see Klitschko fight? He has an 83% KO percentage, an amazing ratio at any weight when the fighter has over fifty fights. If you just consider his last ten fights, the percentage drops to 60.

Lennox Lewis only had a 72% KO percentage, Evander Holyfield 50%, Mike Tyson 75% and George Foreman 83%. And a weak division is a poor excuse. Mike Tyson didn’t fight the really elite fighters until the decline of his career. During his original reign as champion, there were no fighters like Lennox Lewis or Evander Holyfield on his résumé. The 90’s were only marginally better than the 80’s and if Holyfield had remained at cruiserweight, there would have been no wars with Bowe, Lewis or Tyson.

Is it because Klitschko is white? Foreign? Allegedly weak-chinned? If his chin were really weak, then how come it hasn’t been tested since losing to Lamon Brewster in 2004? He’s fought both Samuel Peter and Brewster a second time and neither of them were able to beat him.

Wladimir Klitschko isn’t a perfect fighter. Lennox Lewis had him dead on the money. Klitschko has all the mechanics of a champion. except he’s a little stiff. He doesn’t fight as if he is able to think on his feet and alter his game.

But the same is true for Roy Jones Jr.’s defense back in his heyday. He didn’t do it because he didn’t need to. When you’re knocking out just about every opponent you step in the ring with little difficulty, you don’t have to utilize everything in the tool shed.

Sometimes to dig a hole, all you need is a shovel. Wladimir Klitschko is definitely the best fighter in the division and it isn’t his responsibility to make everyone else step up to his level.