Klitschko’s lackluster victory and the sad state of heavyweight boxing

That, ladies and gentlemen, was the best fight heavyweight boxing can offer us and, safe to say, there was not much to see. Wladimir Klitschko (56-3-0, 49 KOs) defeated another challenger to continue the Ukrainian stranglehold on the heavyweight division. David Haye (25-2-0, 23 KOs) has fought only four rounds in the heavyweight division but he was the best challenger out there for Klitschko. All the other heavyweights were all too raw, too fat, or too long on the tooth for the champion. Haye did a tremendous job in promoting himself. He did win the WBA world title but his other three opponents in the heavyweight division were all cakewalks. He got the fight against Klitschko basically because he irritated the Ukrainian. For his efforts, he got a shot at the unified championship and a 50-50 split purse. Not too shabby. Haye did not go into this fight to win it. He came hoping to steal it. He talked endlessly about proving to everyone that Klitschko is a bum by knocking him out. In the end, his bite didn’t measure up to his bark. The former WBA heavyweight champion connected with about two or three good punches per round then spent half his time and effort in bobbing and weaving and moving his head around to evade Klitschko’s jabs and straight rights, the other half was spent on diving to the canvass every single time Klitschko nudged him. Referee Genaro Hernandez bought Haye’s dramatics and even deducted a point from Klitschko in the seventh round. This is where Klitschko’s head trainer, Emmanuel Steward, stepped in and lashed at the referee for allowing Haye to take dives. After this, the referee started seeing it the other way and he even scored a knockdown for Klitschko in round 11 after Haye threw himself to the canvass again. For Klitschko, it was indeed a win but it was not a pretty performance by any stretch of the imagination. He showed us that he finds it difficult to connect against a fighter who has any semblance of head movement. Most of his past opponents have been stationary targets and that’s how Klitschko’s found it so easy to knock them out. The unified WBA, IBF, and WBO champion didn’t do anything other than throw jabs and right straights, his combinations never went above four punches, and he was unable to wobble a much smaller opponent. Basically, the two combatants went into this fight as safety first fighters when all they talked about before the fight was about knocking the other guy’s head off. Haye did not know what to do against Klitschko and the Ukrainian did not want to open up because he didn’t want to get caught with a big punch. The result was a lackluster unanimous decision victory for Klitschko with the scores of 117-109, 118-108, and 116-110. This fight was supposed to be the one that will usher in the start of a resurgence in heavyweight boxing; it ended up as the biggest proof that the division is in horrible condition. It is really sad that what was once boxing’s most interesting division has been reduced to this. -- OMG, GMA News