-Photo Credit: DMW/DKP-
By Frank Gonzalez Jr.
February 24th, 2008
“Wladimir Dominates Ibragimov with His Jab”
Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, Ukrainian Heavyweight
champ Wladimir Klitschko (50-3, 44 KO’s) defended his IBF and
IBO titles against Russian WBO champ, Sultan Ibragimov
(22-1-1, 18 KO’s). Klitschko stood four inches taller on paper
but looked a foot taller in the ring. Ibragimov earned his
stripes beating former WBO champ Shannon Briggs by UD 12 in
June of last year. A month later, Wladimir avenged his loss to
Lamon Brewster by administering a beating. Brewster retired in
his corner after the sixth round.
Wladimir has faced the better opponents and in spite of a few
bumps in the road, he has emerged as, ‘the man to beat’ at
Heavyweight. Ibragimov came in like a wildcard team in the
playoffs, dangerous and not to be underestimated.
As they touched gloves to start the contest, my first thought
was, how long it would take for Wladimir to dispose of the
smaller south paw. But I remembered another south paw named
Corrie Sanders, who five years ago faced Wladimir in Germany
as a huge under-dog. Sanders’ started fast and was able to
knock Klitschko out within two rounds with an all out assault
that worked perfectly. Was it a fluke? No one will ever know
for sure since Wladimir never did fight Sanders again—when it
would have mattered. That scenario would not be repeated for
Sultan Ibragimov Saturday night as Wlad fought in a “prevent
defense” mode, content to win a boxing match and keeping the
risks to a minimum. It had the effect of pissing off the crowd
at the Garden but it won him the fight.
Wladimir is studious of opponent’s assets as well as his own
adaptations to such. Against Ibragimov, who is known for his
quickness and respectable counter punching skills, Klitschko
fought a careful, technical fight that consisted of jabbing to
keep the right distance and to score points. I gave Ibragimov
the first two rounds for being busier with the punches but
from rounds three to the end, it was all Wladimir Klitschko,
who used his long jab to pop Ibragimov in the face all night.
In the late rounds, Klitschko got comfortable enough to start
throwing his powerful straight rights, which found the mark a
few times, to the delight of the action starved crowd.
Ibragimov was totally game and managed to land a few good
shots but never anything he was able to build on. Klitschko
used his height and jab well and controlled most of the
action. For a boxing match, it was a mismatch. For a fight, it
had a couple of decent moments but not enough to be
remembered.
For the crowd in attendance at the Garden, it wasn’t an
exciting fight. They booed throughout the match, frustrated at
the lack of aggression from Wlad and the ineffectiveness of
the very gamely Ibragimov. While Ibragimov tried to make it a
battle, Wlad always managed to keep him out of range by
keeping his jab in Ibragimov’s face. Sultan would keep
jabbing, then as suddenly as expected, leap in with a left to
the body that sometimes landed but never flush enough to hurt
Klitschko.
Klitschko boxed like a chess player. He wasn’t looking for a
knockout as much as he was looking to hit, without being hit.
He did a great job of it. It wasn’t so pleasing to watch, but
it was one recipe for success. In the end, it was a lopsided
Points victory for Wladimir Klitschko. Credit Ibragimov for
being tough enough to go the distance over a guy who usually
wins by KO.
* *
HBO’s coverage team of Jim Lampley and Lennox Lewis are both
reasonable, sound commentators, but Max Kellerman is
annoyingly distracting to listen to. Early in the seventh
round, Kellerman questioned Harold Lederman’s score card for
giving Ibragimov rounds one and six at that point, by saying
that it was a virtual shutout in his mind, all the while
complaining that Wladimir’s tactics weren’t crowd pleasing.
Klitschko easily lost the first round by just pawing at
Ibragimov’s jab, instead of throwing his own. Klitschko landed
maybe two soft punches to Ibragimov’s five. Ibragimov was the
aggressor in the first round and landed more punches in that
round but according to Kellerman, Ibragimov lost every round.
I missed Larry Merchant, who isn’t afraid to ask the tough
questions or say unpopular things and best of all, he doesn’t
kiss up to the house or its fighters. A virtual shut up on
Max’s part would’ve been better received by this viewer.
The picture at HW could be more exciting but this is what we
have:
WBA champion, Ruslan Chagaev, who won a Majority Decision over
giant sized Nicolai Valuev last year in April. He last fought
in August and should be available to fight Wladimir in a few
months. I can’t see him beating Wladimir but speculation
doesn’t count for much. Chagaev is unbeaten, just like
Ibragimov. Time will tell how that one plays out.
There’s WBC champion Oleg Maskaev, who won the inherited title
away from Hasim Rahman back in 2006 and has been quiet since.
He has a win over relative unknown Peter Okhello in December
of 2006. That’s a lot of rust to shake off before facing
Samuel Peter, who has explosive power, improved boxing skills
but is vulnerable to clean punching as demonstrated by Jameel
McCline last October. Maskaev is slated to face Sam Peter on
March 3rd. Peter has been busy. Maskaev hasn’t. Maskaev is the
better boxer and has sneaky power. Peter is tough, strong and
aggressive. It should be interesting.
Wladimir Klitschko, now owns the WBO, IBO and IBF titles. If
his mission is to unify the titles, his brother Vitali should
return to the ring AFTER that happens, not before. Vitali
will interfere with the current line up. If Wlad can beat the
winner of Maskaev Peter and beat Chagaev, he will be the true
ONE Champion of the World. Vitali hasn’t fought since December
of 2004. Considering how soft the division is, if Vitali comes
back, he probably wins a title right away, thereby forcing a
Klitschko vs. Klitschko fight in order to create ONE true
Champion. They have always said they’d never fight each other
so…
* * *
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