Byrd - Klitschko: The Savior is Seeking Redemption

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news.php?p=6618&more=1

17.04.06 - By Troy Ondrizek: It has been nearly ten years since the entire world was introduced to the future savior of the heavyweight division. This fighter was so skilled, so strong, and so intelligent, that there was no question of whether he would be a top five all-time great. To be honest, I was just as equally impressed with him as the experts of the time were. The majority of boxing fans were equally as enamored by him, and just as intrigued for he came from such an unknown boxing region.

This region has in the past couple of years, come to dominate the division. We were mesmerized by him, and when he entered the paid ranks, his first couple of years suggested nothing other than his eventual climb to the summit, and his inevitable conquering of then champ, Lennox Lewis. However, Wladimir Klitschko found a way to supersede all of his experience and talent and he went from the savior of boxing and the heavyweight division; to being the prodigal son, coming back from exile and trying to capture the love and admiration of boxing fans the world over.

For almost two years Wladimir left journeymen and prospects sprawled all over canvases like a deadly natural disaster. Out of his first twenty-four fights, he garnered twenty-four victories, with only one man standing to hear the judges announce him as a loser. Wladimir was cruising at this point; he was entering the stage of contender. Klitschko then stepped into the ring with the durable Ross Purity. Purity had power and a chin, but that was it, his lack of any boxing ability seemed to be a perfect victory for Wladimir. Purity though was a game opponent that night. Both men stood there and traded from time to time; remember at this point Wlad still had a chin. Purity had done enough damage during the bout for Klitschko’s corner to throw in the towel late in the fight for an 11th round TKO for Purity. As much as this was a setback for boxing’s messiah, we as fans weren’t really concerned with it, we still felt that Wladimir would learn from this experience and eventually take us to the Promised Land.

It took only two months for Wladimir to climb back in the ring and once again guide his career towards Canaan. In fact, this was hands down the best period of his career. Klitschko started defeating credible talented opponents such as Axel Schulz and Monte Barrett. After the Barrett destruction, Wladimir took on his current opponent Chris Byrd. Byrd at the time had suffered only one loss, and that was at the hands of the other potential savior in Ike Ibeabuchi. For twelve rounds, Klitschko proceeded to beat the senses out of Chris Byrd, even flooring him twice, late in the contest. In the process Wladimir captured the WBO heavyweight title.

Wladimir would go on to defend this dubious belt a total of six times, five of them successful. The five successful defenses were against credible opponents, at least at the time. In these defenses Wladimir had nearly cemented himself at the top, just like we always thought he would. It only took him four years to capture a title, and six years to establish himself as the man next to Lennox Lewis in the division, and it only took two rounds to end all of it. For Corrie Sanders walked into the scenario and destroyed more than just Wladimir’s consciousness, he destroyed Klitschko’s mental psyche for years to come, actually we are still questioning if Wladimir has come back from that loss.

Once again Wladimir picked up the pieces he called a career, and received another shot at his beloved WBO title, for Corrie Sanders had relinquished the lesser title to fight Wladimir’s bigger brother Vitali for the WBC crown, Sanders didn’t have the same success against the elder Klitschko. This time the man in front of Wladimir was Lamon Brewster, another inadequately skilled fighter who threw big punches and absorbed them as well. Wladimir gave Lamon a one-sided beating for four rounds, even dropping the granite-chinned challenger for the first time in Brewster’s career, and that still stands as Brewster’s only trip to the canvas today. Then the fifth round came, and Wlad had punched himself out. Brewster commenced to landing big body and head shots at will on Wladimir. Klitschko didn’t fall like a man with a glass-jaw would’ve; instead he fell to the mat in exhaustion as the round ended, and scored a TKO victory for Brewster. Now the excuses came flowing from Wladimir’s camp. They claimed that Brewster’s people poisoned him with Vaseline, and that’s why he was fatigued. Now everyone, including Brewster was in his head.

Now not even that embarrassing outing deterred the Ukrainian from becoming a champion, all this did deter him from claiming his status as one of the greatest of his era, let alone of all-time. Wladimir has come back with victories over DaVarryl Williamson, a fight in which he was floored by Williamson, but a cut gave Klitschko a technical victory. Wladimir followed that win up with a demolishing of the natural cruiserweight Eliseo Castillo. Most recently Wladimir defeated the next supposed savior of the division in Samuel Peter. Wladimir went down three times in that fight, once from a rabbit punch, once from fatigue, and the third time was a smart kneel-down from a glancing blow that could’ve been worse had Klitschko not intelligently gone down. Now even with these three “knock downs”, Wladimir put a severe boxing clinic on the limited and over-hyped Peter.

It is at this point we find Wladimir now. Klitschko just turned 30 less than a month ago, and it seems he has been in the game for such a long time. Wladimir still has the opportunity to write his history as one of the greatest of his era and of all-time. His psyche is still a bit fragile, as well as his chin. The unrivaled skill is still there, and that is what still affords him the ability to possibly become the savior we thought he would be. Wladimir has fallen from grace, but he does aspire to ascend to deity status and give us something to believe in. Wladimir Klitschko’s career was dead and is alive again; he was lost, but has found redemption in the eyes of boxing fans; for now