Wladimir Klitschko Is Done With Boxing, Leaving Everyone Else Stuck With Mandatory Defences
Wladimir Klitschko has retired from boxing. 21 years in the sport and he leaves it with a 64-5 record having fought a record 29 title bouts amongst them and his championship reign from 2006 to 2015 will go down as one of the most dominant in the history of boxing. That’s the legend right there.
His last fight, therefore, was his loss to Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium – a fight which already looks to have reinvigorated the sport. Klitschko had an option for a rematch and both sides were keen on taking that up. November 11 in Las Vegas had already been pencilled in. The one hold up was whether or not Wlad, at 41 years old, actually wanted to go through it all one last time and having waited a few months to gain some distance and perspective he’s now decided that, nah, he’s got nothing more to prove.
It’s a respectful decision. Even one of the greatest ever doesn’t really wanna be getting slugged in the head by Anthony Joshua into his 40s any more than necessary and Wlad has enough money. He’s also well poised for his career after boxing: the dude has a doctorate in sports science. Eventually you reach a point where you can’t really be bothered with all the little things and boxing is not a sport you wanna do half-heartedly, let alone against a heavyweight champion. Too many others have made that mistake and Wlad was never gonna be one of them.
For boxing fans, this obviously sucks a bit. Everyone retires eventually but this means we miss out on a blockbuster rematch between Klitschko and Joshua. The first meeting between the two was an instant classic. Now it’s all about the mandatory challenges, unfortunately.
Yeah, so AJ doesn’t really have a say in this now. He’s ordered to fight Kubrat Pulev and only the Klitschko rematch was gonna save him there. Pulev is a perfectly fine fighter. 36 years old outta Bulgaria, he’s 25-1 as a pro and his only defeat came against Wladimir Klitschko back in 2014… though it wasn’t a pretty defeat. Wlad dropped him in the fifth round for a hugely convincing win.
It’s a decent matchup but nothing spectacular. What’ll be interesting is if Eddie Hearn takes it to the USA as they were plotting to do with AJ/WK2, greasing that market ahead of the world domination campaign. What’ll also be interesting is how much the WBA play ball here. They chucked their vacant belt on the line for the Klitschko fight but also want a mandatory challenge soon and if they don’t bend a little then Joshua could even have to surrender it.
This is all still fluid because it was expected that Joshua would fight Klitschko again. With the latest news there, Eddie Hearn has already confirmed that they’ll get straight into negotiations with the Pulev team for the IBF defence. The IBF belt is the one Joshua took into the Klitschko bout and that’s the one his team has prioritised. Except the WBA had already ordered the winner of AJ/WK to take on Luis Ortiz within 120 days and we’re almost hitting triple figures in that day count now. Ortiz and his camp think their bout should take place before the November date against Pulev, so either Hearn and Joshua get super busy and take the risk of two short-preparation fights against serious challengers or they call the lawyers in because there will be drama, one way of the other.
We already know that Joseph Parker is travelling to the UK to defend his WBO title belt against Hughie Fury in September. For some reason Tony Bellew still thinks he can get a look in at the winner of that but regardless it’s unlikely we see Joe Parker fighting again in 2017 after that one. Which takes that belt off the table in the short term – that’s a mandatory challenge as well.
Then we’ve got the WBC belt which Deontay Wilder holds and if there’s one thing you can’t accuse that lad of it’s a lack of ambition. He’s all about throwing his name in the mix for any potentially interesting fight you can imagine. He’s called out AJ, he’s called out Joe. He even made words recently about taking on Luis Ortiz which would, to be honest, be a pretty fascinating clash. Wilder is a real bruiser but he hasn’t been hugely tested in getting to where he is – same as Joseph Parker, same as Anthony Joshua until he beat Klitschko. Meanwhile Ortiz is this Cuban exile with a power punch that hits like an armoured truck. Nobody really wants to fight him and his career has been ruined by bad decisions, from a positive performance-enhancer test to reckless management. He’s finally got himself in position for a mandatory challenge but he might not even get that because of the circumstances.
Then again, Wilder can’t really choose either because he’s stuck in the swamp of mandatory challenges as well… and his situation is the dumbest of the lot. Parker has to fight Fury overseas after Fury more or less pissed around and spoiled a possible fight in New Zealand? Well that doesn’t compare to Wilder’s state of affairs.
Back in 2015, Deontay cruised to victory over Bermane Stiverne by unanimous decision. That was for the WBC title after Stiverne had won it as a vacant following Vitali Klitschko’s retirement. It wasn’t a great fight, to say the least. Since then Stiverne has fought once (UD over Derrick Rossy in Nov 2015) while Wilder has defended his title five times.
Stiverne was supposed to fight Alexander Povetkin in December for the interim title while Deontay Wilder was injured but Povetkin got doped up and they cancelled the fight. Then, since Povetkin had cheated anyway, for some reason the organisation went on ahead and just gave Stiverne the mandatory challenger honours without even fighting for it. Wilder’s team have tossed around the idea of paying off Stiverne’s lot to renege their challenger rights but Stiverne don’t give a good goddamn about the cash – he just wants another title shot and he’s called in the big dog legal help to make sure it happens.
Problem is: with Wilder still having a relatively underground reputation in America (owing to a lack of monster fights) and with Stiverne having been out of the ring for closing on two years – not to mention the dead average fight of theirs the first time around – there’s no interest here from the TV folks. Showtime have more or less said… well, here’s Dan Rafael with the gossip:
“[Wilder’s next defence is] supposed to be on Showtime but if Wilder is ultimately forced into a rematch with mandatory challenger and former titlist Bermane Stiverne, a match that is not commercially viable, don't count on the fight being on Showtime, which has said it has no interest in that bout. It would have big interest in fights between Wilder and an opponent such as Luis "King Kong" Ortiz or Jarrell "Big Baby" Miller.”
So that’s a bit of a tricky situation, there. Suddenly of the three heavyweight title holders it feels like Joseph Parker is the only one with a clear path through the rest of 2017 and as the least experienced of the trio it’s also gotta be said that he’s the one who benefits the most from delaying these unification bouts.
Ah well, so it goes. Shout out to Wladimir Klitschko once again, he’s one of the greats and we were lucky to see him in his prime.
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