OnThEGRiND BoXiNG

Sunday March 15th, 2009
By Suge Green

As Vitali Klitschko begins his final week of preparations to defend his World Boxing Conspiracy Heavyweight Championship against former sparring partner, WBC #1 ranked Juan Carlos Gomez, let’s just briefly assess the two prevailing and opposing schools of thought on this match up. The majority of those who predict a Gomez victory are looking for the challenger to use his technical boxing ability to outpoint the aging elder KLiTschko. With related points of interest being ViTKLiT’s extended hiatus from the sport, struggles with injuries, and lack real of interest in a bout with Gomez (he has stated on the record that he prefers bouts with either David Haye or Nikolay Valuev). While those who are anticipating a ViTKLiT victory, are looking for his devastating power and sinister fighting mentality to lead him to victory. To take it a step further, I’m one of those people. ViTKLiT has not had 3 plus years of deterioration, but rather 3 plus years of vacation. At least that’s my assessment following his championship winning performance against Samuel Peter. The Breakdown: ViTKLiT to test Gomez’ determination and his heart just as he did Samuel Peter, lastly he will test his ability to remain vertical. Vitali Klitschko by KO victory.

Now onto Marco Antonio Barrera and Amir Khan’s clash (of heads) this weekend…It’s not surprising that a fight that was made with no demand from the public, and little worldwide interest would end with absolutely no resolution. Khan walks away with a victory, but little credit…Barrera walks away with a loss, but little scorn. Can somebody remind me why the boxing world was supposed to care what happens when a fighter who supposedly has a glass jaw meets a fighter who is supposedly shot…??? What would this have proven…which individual was less elite at this point…??? Did it…??? If MAB would have won, it would have been said that Khan is a glass jawed joke…and after the Khan victory cries of “So what ? Barrera is shot!!” are already being heard, just as anticipated. The fact that it was a cut early in the fight that led to the stoppage, adds controversy to the event and assures that only minimal credit goes to Amir Khan, especially since Barrera’s most recent outing caused many to predict he would be stopped on cuts in going forward with the bout with his much younger opponent…in doing so he waived his right to the proper amount of time needed to heal a previous cut. I care about the result of this fight as much as I cared about the fight itself. In any case, Khan dominated and gets a TD in the 5th round.

“King” Arthur Abraham wins in Kiel, Germany by way of 12 round UD, defeating Philly’s Lajuan Simon. With Abe’s fantastic power, he surely rates among other fighters that fans love to watch. It doesn’t exactly give boxing observers the “warm fuzzies” though, when you hear that a 5′10″ fighter is said to be struggling with the middleweight division’s 160lbs. weight limit. In this day and age we have welterweights competing who stand over 6′ tall.

With both Lamon Brewster and Oleg Maskaev keeping themselves in the win column over the weekend, both seem to be on a similar path…former champs, working there way back to a title shot, and both are said to have a Klitschko brother in their respective sights. Oleg is looking to mimic his amateur victory over the elder, while Lamon is said to want an eventual rubber match with Wladimir. I for one wouldn’t mind them facing each other, if ViTKLiT should succeed in avoiding what he considers a meaningless defense against Maskaev. Why not ? They both can punch, and aren’t exactly known for their defensive abilities…those two ingredients alone usually make for an above average heavyweight battle.

I just finished reading eastsideboxing.com alumni Scoop Malinowski’s, “Heavyweight Armageddon: The Tyson-Lewis Championship Battle.” I recommend this book to all fight fans that would like some additional background on this once in a lifetime event and the details surrounding it. There are more than a few gems in this paperback courtesy of Mr. Malinowski.