The Klitschko's had it made, all they had to do was play up their inner Ivan Drago's, and the Americans would spent years paying them a fortune to beat the latest next American Rocky. But they come across as very arrogant (even though I do not think they are), and it rubs people up the wrong way. They have blown their careers really with this perceived attitude. They should of been so much more...
To be fair though,Vitalis fight with Arreola did great numbers on HBO and was the highest rated fight of 2009.They just havent got the opponents to fight in the States more often.
So you need to sell yourself, look at Ali in the 70s, his opposition sometimes was shocking, but he never under sold a fight, he knew he had to be a salesman, particularly when Richard Dunn or Alfredo Evangelista was in the other corner... Tyson too, was sold brilliantly by Cayton and Jacobs, against some pretty ordinary opposition. The Klitschko's really have little excuse for not making it in the States.
They were both American Heavyweights though..Lewis wasnt American and the American public wasnt exactly keen on him and even today they dont rate him as highly as the British do. When was the last time a non American Heavy whos first language wasnt English was a huge star?
Ivan Drago... (well probably Ingo or Schmeling) So Kltischko's needed to live that gimmick. "We vil crush you puny American boxers" type thing. It would of worked and made them a lot more money...
Talked about this earlier in the general. Vitali was making good strides in the US after his showing with Lewis, but his retirement put an end to any success he was having. Wlad was making good ground after the Sanders and Brewster defeats, with his showing against Peter. But the heavily hyped, **** poor Ibragimov fight turned a lot of Americans off. At the end of the day it's Wlad's boring style that is the turn off( i have'nt watched his last two)yawn. Vitali is or was the more watchable but his missed his ticket now. A good point someone made in the general is that Americans only relate to an undisputed champion, which makes sense because Lewis (a foreigner) only got recognition once he was unified champ. But we aren't American, we just find them boring.
Read the thread, I am saying they needed to build a personality around what they had (the robotic style), and they have messed up badly. In the era of the anti-hero, they could of been huge...
:deal Exactly mate, they are rigid and safety first. Vitali is more attacking ranted but they prefer their heavyweights as sluggers and exciting i.e Tyson. The fact they havnt had top US opponents to fight like a prime Holyfield etc obviously affects their popularity and so too the fact they always fight in Europe nowadays also doesn't help...
Americans would love watching them if they were American. I can just see the vast herds of white UFC nerds jumping on the bandwagon. Afterall..... the Eastern Europeans love them because........ they are eastern european. Otherwise they are boring as hell, very robotic....... and they should have just played upto their Ivan Drago "I will break you" persona if they had any real business sense. I'm sure they would have been clever with it. And more clever than David Haye at his alter-ego that is getting boring now.
