Wlad Klitschko vs. Povetkin

[Westside]

I read an article on ESB where Uncle Teddy said Wlad will be a tall order and Povektin will have to fight the perfect fight to win. Teddy admits that Wlad has perfected his style based on his strengths and intelligence and with the guidience of Steward.

 

[The Hock]

Yeah, Steward has done a great job with Vlad, who was headed for shipwreck status before he hired Manny.

 

[whiteathlete33]

I read an article on ESB where Uncle Teddy said Wlad will be a tall order and Povektin will have to fight the perfect fight to win. Teddy admits that Wlad has perfected his style based on his strengths and intelligence and with the guidience of Steward.

Funny good ole' Teddy says that now yet he blasts the Klitschko at every opportunity.

 

[space hillbilly]

Yeah, Steward has done a great job with Vlad, who was headed for shipwreck status before he hired Manny.

I don't believe Steward had anything to do with Waldimir becomeing a better fighter,
Manny came with HBO,now HBO dorpped the Klitschkos,
Steward will be gone soon.What did Manny do for Waldimir anyway?
nothing he didn't do for fighter's like Banks, he may have helped some,
but Waldimir was a great fighter long before Manny, I'm not buying into the media hype around Steward.....

 

[JReb1]

Of course Wladimir was always a great fighter, he's probably the most gifted fighter in HW history. Manny only molded his talents to make Wlad a complete fighter. Manny taught Wlad how to use his size, defense, control a fight with his jab, lean on a fighter to tire him out and also to pace himself so he doesn't punch himself out which Wlad did against Brewster and Purrity. With Fritz Wlad was a pure offensive fighter like Tommy Morrison which is a style that's always going to be inconsistent because you'll always run the risk of getting caught (Sanders) or punching yourself out.

 

[Charles Martel]

I don't believe Steward had anything to do with Waldimir becomeing a better fighter,
Manny came with HBO,now HBO dorpped the Klitschkos,
Steward will be gone soon.What did Manny do for Waldimir anyway?
nothing he didn't do for fighter's like Banks, he may have helped some,
but Waldimir was a great fighter long before Manny, I'm not buying into the media hype around Steward.....

I agree. Manny Steward hasn't done anything to improve Wladimir, there's nothing Wlad does now that he didn't do before Manny.

Wlad used to be more entertaining before he worked with Manny, he used a greater variety of punches: more hooks, bodypunches and uppercuts than he does now. He's more cautious now, he used to be very good at close-in fighting with his devastating short hooks (see Barrett and Jefferson fights).

His five years of impressive wins without being knocked down has nothing to do with Manny, it has to do with Wlad's maturity.

 

[Charles Martel]

From ESPN today:

When Ross Greenburg, the president of HBO Sports, said in a recent interview with me that he would not buy heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko's September fight against Alexander Povetkin, it came as quite a surprise to the Klitschko camp.

The reason: Klitschko and his team, namely manager Bernd Boente and adviser Shelly Finkel, say HBO promised it would air the fight on Sept. 11 and that they had agreed on a price ($250,000 to show the bout on same-day tape delay).

Frankly, I absolutely believe them, because long before Greenburg said HBO wouldn't air the fight, Finkel told me several times that he had made a deal for the bout with Kery Davis, the HBO Sports senior vice president whose job it is to make such deals and who wanted to do the fight.

Obviously, Davis' boss cut his legs out and trumped his decision after the fact, leaving Klitschko angry about the broken promise from HBO, which has generally done good ratings for Klitschko fights.

"We are really frustrated. Shelly is furious. Wladimir, too," Boente said Wednesday. "We were counting on it. This cost us a quarter of a million dollars. If they had told us this at the beginning, we would have had the fight on Showtime. Now we have neither. Not only is HBO screwing us, they are screwing American boxing fans. I am not only surprised, I am shocked."

So without HBO or Showtime as a U.S. platform, Klitschko will fight Povetkin on Sept. 11 at the 55,000-seat Commerzbank Arena in Frankfurt, Germany. The deal was finalized this week after Klitschko's K2 Promotions won a recent purse bid for the fight, one of the best you can make in the division -- which is, granted, not exactly loaded with big fights. Povetkin is at least a deserving mandatory challenger and universally regarded as the No. 4 heavyweight in the world behind Klitschko, brother and fellow titleholder Vitali Klitschko and titlist David Haye, who is ducking the brothers.

Boente contends that HBO breaking its promise cost him the chance to make the same deal for $250,000 with Showtime, which was interested in the fight. However, Boente said Showtime could only accommodate it on Sept. 18, when it would have aired as a lead-in to its live featherweight title fight from Las Vegas featuring Juan Manuel Lopez defending against Rafael Marquez.

By the way, Boente understands the TV fight-buying business because, before working with the Klitschkos, he had a job similar to Davis' with a German network.

"When I promised a promoter I would do a fight, that promise stood," he said. "There were no excuses."

The only reason Boente even made a deal for Sept. 11 instead of Sept. 18 is because that is when Davis told him HBO was available. Boente had been dealing through the German soccer league, which was putting together its upcoming schedule, and one of those dates was going to be a home game for the Frankfurt team. Boente said he worked with German soccer officials to clear one of the dates for the fight. It gave him Sept. 11, which he requested because of HBO. Then HBO bailed, leaving him unable to move back to Sept. 18 to accommodate Showtime because the soccer schedule was already set.

"What HBO did to us is absolutely disgusting," Boente said. "Kery promised me and also Shelly on the telephone that he will do the fight. We had agreed. The worst thing is that Kery said, 'We can do the fight on the 11th but not on the 18th.' Showtime could do it on the 18th but not on the 11th. We made a deal with HBO for the 11th and we said to the German soccer league before they planned their schedule to please make sure that on the 11th there is no home game for Frankfurt because we have an American TV station on board. They said OK. And then HBO screwed us and now we lose $250,000."

The Klitschkos are so upset with HBO that Boente said they will never again fight on the network, which has had a long association with them. He said they'll go so far as to ask HBO to remove their photos and bios from its website.

"If we knew HBO wouldn't do the fight, we would have asked for [the stadium on] Sept. 18 and Showtime would have shown the fight," he said. "Now we lose all that money completely, and it's HBO's fault.

"[Davis] should have talked to his boss first before you promise something. You can't promise me and Shelly and then not do it. Showtime played it very straight with us about their situation. HBO did not. I'll tell you one thing: If either brother ever fights David Haye, I will make sure and the brothers will make sure that HBO doesn't cover the fight and that it will go to Showtime.

"HBO's lie cost us $250,000. It's not like Wladimir is fighting a bum. Povetkin is undefeated, he's an Olympic champion and everyone ranks him very highly. A lot of people want to see the fight.

"Wladimir is totally pissed and really disappointed. He thought a promise is a promise, and if you promise someone, you have to stand by your promise. We have been on HBO for 23 fights [between the brothers], but I guess that doesn't mean anything. Maybe Ross has something against Germany or Ukrainians. I don't know what it is. You'd think maybe he would call Wladimir and Vitali and say he's sorry."

Not just Ukrainians and Germans. It seems Ross Greenburg has a deep-rooted hatred of white Gentiles.

 

[Westside]

Parody I read the article. I hope ESPN will at least pick up delayed broadcast rights of the fight. If not, If I was K2 I would approach ABC sports and propose an "old school" fight on ABC Wide World of Sports Heavyweight Fight in the afternoon. Does Wide World of Sports even exists? But maybe the color of the fighters might be too much to swallow.

 

[whiteathlete33]

If two black were fighting for the heavyweight title or even one black and one white Greenburg would have no problem televising it. As someone mentioned in a previous post Povetkin is most likely the best fighter Wladimir has ever faced so it's an interesting fight. The only other fighter who I think is better than Povetkin is Adamek.

 

[referendum]

I realize he shouldn't be a heavyweight belt holder at all, but does anyone remember how much television coverage in the US the Haye-Ruiz or Haye-Valuev fights got? If the coverage was significantly better than we are seeing for the Klitschko's that would prove something.

 

[whiteathlete33]

A black man vs a white man and a Hispanic man vs a black man. Enough said!

 

[white is right]

I realize he shouldn't be a heavyweight belt holder at all, but does anyone remember how much television coverage in the US the Haye-Ruiz or Haye-Valuev fights got? If the coverage was significantly better than we are seeing for the Klitschko's that would prove something.

Both fights were never broadcast on TV. I'm not sure if they were PPV's. But I do know they received significant internet chatter. The difference between Haye and the K brothers is that they were broadcast on US network tv and now are getting treatment that obscure European and Asian champions get. Haye is an obscure paper champion, they are being treated like obscure paper champions.

 

[white is right]

I don't believe Steward had anything to do with Waldimir becomeing a better fighter,
Manny came with HBO,now HBO dorpped the Klitschkos,
Steward will be gone soon.What did Manny do for Waldimir anyway?
nothing he didn't do for fighter's like Banks, he may have helped some,
but Waldimir was a great fighter long before Manny, I'm not buying into the media hype around Steward.....

I agree. Manny Steward hasn't done anything to improve Wladimir, there's nothing Wlad does now that he didn't do before Manny.

Wlad used to be more entertaining before he worked with Manny, he used a greater variety of punches: more hooks, bodypunches and uppercuts than he does now. He's more cautious now, he used to be very good at close-in fighting with his devastating short hooks (see Barrett and Jefferson fights).

His five years of impressive wins without being knocked down has nothing to do with Manny, it has to do with Wlad's maturity.

Manny has made Wlad into a more robotic fighter. I wish that Wlad could mold the two styles that he has been taught as a pro. If you had the offensive shark type style under Fritz Z. with the defensive cautious style you would have the perfect tv fighter. In a few fights we have seen it ie the Rainman fight and the Brock fight.

 

[Charles Martel]

HBO's prejudice against white fighters is evident in this example: they refused to have a world-class, undefeated white long-time WBO champion Sergey Dzinziruk on against Paul Williams last year. Recently Greenburg refused to accept the now US-based Dzinziruk as the HBO-televised opponent for Alfredo Angulo.

However, HBO will show the Canadian-based Haitian Joachim Alcine fighting against Angulo this Saturday.

They keep showing the mediocre Haitian Andre Berto, who repeatedly holds his opponents arms and so makes for boring fights. Yet they turn down a fight between the heavyweight champion of the world, Wladimir Klitschko and the 2004 Olympic Gold Medal winner, Alexander Povetkin.

 

[whiteathlete33]

HBO's prejudice against white fighters is evident in this example: they refused to have a world-class, undefeated white long-time WBO champion Sergey Dzinziruk on against Paul Williams last year. Recently Greenburg refused to accept the now US-based Dzinziruk as the HBO-televised opponent for Alfredo Angulo.



However, HBO will show the Canadian-based Haitian Joachim Alcine fighting against Angulo this Saturday.

They keep showing the mediocre Haitian Andre Berto, who repeatedly holds his opponents arms and so makes for boring fights. Yet they turn down a fight between the heavyweight champion of the world, Wladimir Klitschko and the 2004 Olympic Gold Medal winner, Alexander Povetkin.

Greenburg's goal is to make the Klitschko's unappealing as champions to the American public. So far the tribesman is succeeding.

 

[space hillbilly]

HBO's prejudice against white fighters is evident in this example: they refused to have a world-class, undefeated white long-time WBO champion Sergey Dzinziruk on against Paul Williams last year. Recently Greenburg refused to accept the now US-based Dzinziruk as the HBO-televised opponent for Alfredo Angulo.

However, HBO will show the Canadian-based Haitian Joachim Alcine fighting against Angulo this Saturday.

They keep showing the mediocre Haitian Andre Berto, who repeatedly holds his opponents arms and so makes for boring fights. Yet they turn down a fight between the heavyweight champion of the world, Wladimir Klitschko and the 2004 Olympic Gold Medal winner, Alexander Povetkin.

Greenburg's goal is to make the Klitschko's unappealing as champions to the American public.  So far the tribesman is succeeding.

Yas, but the bigger the Klitschko's get, the more obvious it gets that the media is trying to hide them........

 

[whiteathlete33]

The drunk white American fans will believe anything you tell them. If they see a big network like HBO doesn't want to show the Klitschko's then they must not be worth watching. They don't have a problem shelling out $50 to watch the racist foul mouthed negro Gayweather fight though. Plenty of salted snacks and beer for the big pay per view event featuring the super black man.

You would think that by now these idiots would get the point. Don't you want to watch a fighter who looks like you and shares a history with you? Nope.

 

[white is right]

HBO's prejudice against white fighters is evident in this example: they refused to have a world-class, undefeated white long-time WBO champion Sergey Dzinziruk on against Paul Williams last year. Recently Greenburg refused to accept the now US-based Dzinziruk as the HBO-televised opponent for Alfredo Angulo.

However, HBO will show the Canadian-based Haitian Joachim Alcine fighting against Angulo this Saturday.

They keep showing the mediocre Haitian Andre Berto, who repeatedly holds his opponents arms and so makes for boring fights. Yet they turn down a fight between the heavyweight champion of the world, Wladimir Klitschko and the 2004 Olympic Gold Medal winner, Alexander Povetkin.

It will be interesting to see if the Ukrainian will be getting good time slots on either network. I think he has been on the future stars show on Showtime. With Shaw he can get network exposure as Shaw has pull with Showtime.

 

[JReb1]

My prediction for this fight is Wlad by decision (8 rounds to 4) or Wlad by late TKO. Povetkin is really good but he's just not ready for either Klit and may never be. I still think Povetkin is the 3rd best HW right now and I'd favor him to win against anybody besides the Klits. This should be a really good fight, Povetkin is the only fighter out there right now who is capable of winning a few rounds against Wlad so it should be an awesome fight.

 

[space hillbilly]

I believe Povetkin can, and will beat Waldimir. Povetkin is no negro fighter.