"Fourteen million watched my fight in Germany [against Chambers] and 51,000 were at the stadium, and 61,000 [for the fight] before that. It's packed. We are selling out stadiums in a few days." I don't mean this as a shot at the guy, who I consider an excellent heavyweight, but I just don't understand why anyone could be a big fan of the guy; he's incredibly boring both in and out of the ring. Yet he has a massive following in Germany. Can anyone tell me why?
It's pretty much his adopted home town. He lived and trained there in the beginning of his career and many Germans feel he is a homer.
Wladimir is at home ground wherever he is in Europe, perhaps not England. He's a superstar, even people who hate boxing in Sweden know about the Klitschkos.
Probably for the same reason I (an American) love Wladimir. He is a dominant heavyweight champion with class inside and outside the ring.
Also Germany hasn't had a tonne of homegrown boxing success , despite being a fairly large country , who've been known to like a bit of a scrap. Wlad , Vitali , Abraham , Strum none of these guys are German but are happily accepted by the German sports fans. Plus the Germans love an efficient winner and Wlad is certianly that.
What you described is generally the way most US fans saw Lennox Lewis. Eventually, however, they grew to appreciate hime. And though I think Lewis was a more exciting fighter, he did have more than his fair share of stinkers.
The sad thing is America should have gave Chambers more support. He is actually one of the few heavyweight contenders who worked hard to earn his shot by beating other top 10 fighters, his entertaining schooling of Dimietrenko should have got at least some coverage. Even if he was going to the slaughter, he deserved better. After dominating the division's former number 2 in Peter on ESPN he got attacked by Atlas for not knocking the big lug out..something Wlad, Oleg, and Vitali couldn't even do with clean power punches. If your not Mike Tyson America isn't going to take much interest in a heavyweight. Holyfield was even loathed as a boring soft spoken gentleman until the Bowe trilogy.
So, Sturm who was born, raised and lived all of his life in Germany isn´t German? Interesting. Abraham is no ethnic German but German citizen. That´s about as German as you can be. Wlad and Vitali are neither and aren´t seen as such. They are liked for beeing goof fighters and good, humple people. We like guys like that over there. That´s why Lamon Brewster or Virgil Hill are very respected and liked over her despite beating "our heroes".