Interesting article from Kevin Iole on Klitschko: Wladimir Klitschko packs 245 pounds on a 6-foot, 6-inch frame and is so powerfully built that a car might dent its fender if it runs into him. If you’re a heavyweight with ambitions of wearing a title belt, the image of Klitschko standing across the ring from you has to be the worst sight since Mama picked your date for the junior prom. He’s become a knockout machine and his career KO percentage of 83.3 is roughly the same as George Foreman’s (83.95) and is better than Joe Louis’s (75.0), Lennox Lewis (72.73) and Mike Tyson’s (75.86). Klitschko’s lack of acclaim is puzzling, because other than about an 18-month stretch in 2003 and 2004, he’s been nothing short of brilliant since he’s moved into the big time. He fights frequently, he’s faced most of the world’s top-rated heavyweights and he’s consistently improved. While he still has his flaws, there isn’t an honest man alive who wouldn’t concede that Klitschko is a better fighter at the end of 2008 than he was, say, at the end of 2005. If he were from Brooklyn, he’d already have been on the front of a cereal box and he’d probably have his own video game. But he’s of Ukrainian descent and fights primarily in Germany, a country in which boxing remains a major sport, so he’s only an afterthought to most American fans. -------------------------------------- Actually his KO% is even higher now and he has won/defended World Championship Belts a total of 24 times in his career and never ducked the first fighter. Full story here: http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news?slug=ki-klitschko121108&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
Good article, but Americans love their fighters with personality, to be tough, strong chinned, heavy punching Heavyweights. Wlad only has one of those 4 credentials mentioned for a Heavyweight champion, thats just not enough to get the average joes attention, on top of that, the lack of depth and talent in the division is downright poor. Wlad deserves credit for being champ from April of 06 till now, but he still has alot of work to do before being considering one of the greats IMO.
Klitschko-Ibragimov Klitschko-Rahman It's not all his fault, but he's contributed. Still, he helps more then hinders.