The warrior’s path

Even the longest vacation has to end. It has been five months since Volodymyr Klychko’s hard-fought victory over Nigerian Sam Peter for the status of mandatory contender for the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Organization titles. Boxing fans spent all this time guessing whom the Ukrainian would challenge next. WBO champion Lamon Brewster was viewed as the most likely contender, since he was the one who unexpectedly defeated Klychko in a championship bout two years ago. In professional boxing, a rematch is not only a matter of prestige but also an unwritten rule. Only by adequately responding to his victorious opponent can a boxer restore his battered reputation. Lennox Lewis did this after each of the two bouts that he lost in his entire boxing career — to Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman. During the two rematches he virtually took apart his opponents piece by piece. Notably, he managed to “drag” Rahman into the boxing ring only after a court battle.

So Brewster seems to be the ideal contender for Klychko. However, the American’s champion belt is not prestigious enough for the Ukrainian boxer. Of the four major boxing associations, the WBO is generally considered the weakest. WBO champions have virtually no chances of challenging other champions in unification fights. For example, they cannot fight champions of the most prestigious association, the World Boxing Council, because the WBC’s rules forbid this. In fact, it is precisely because the WBO is in the hinterlands that Brewster fought his last bout in Germany rather than in the US, the mecca of boxing. So, it makes no sense for Volodymyr to reclaim his “family” belt. In this scenario he would have few opportunities to influence his own career independently. Besides, an important argument against fighting Brewster is the fact that his promoter is the notorious Don King, and neither Volodymyr nor his elder brother wants to deal with him.

Last week it was officially announced that Klychko has finally reached an agreement in principle with IBF champion Chris Byrd. Here, too, things are not clear. On the one hand, Byrd’s belt is much more valuable, as it belongs to one of the three associations that hold unification fights. After winning this belt, Klychko would be able to fight for the title of absolute champion, which hasn’t happened since his fight with Lewis. An IBF champion can influence the situation and his own career — at least theoretically — if he manages to avoid all the hidden reefs in this special kind of show business. On the other hand, it is time to remind Klychko that he defeated Byrd six years ago. Meanwhile, if he is to take the “warrior’s path,” he should opt for the most dangerous route, i.e., by challenging Brewster at this stage in his career. But if we forget for a moment the Ukrainian boxer’s convincing defeat of Byrd with two knock-downs, Byrd is rightfully considered one of the most talented boxers today. He has a magnificent technique, and there are no secrets for him in the ring, where he can make a fool out of anybody. Remember his masterful victories over Evander Holyfield and David Tua, both stars of the super-heavyweight division. So speculations that another bout with Byrd would be a walk in the park for Klychko are surprising. Championship fights are rarely easy, and no defeat passes unnoticed. Byrd, who is not large by modern standards, has such a “warrior’s path” behind him that to compare Byrd to Brewster would be to flatter Lamon. Byrd is a better puncher and ranks higher in the index of Ring magazine. It is not his fault that he is an almost ideal contender for Klychko. The bout between Byrd and Klychko has been slated for April 22 and it will take place in Germany. It turns out that he was offered a large purse only there. Incidentally, Klychko’s camp offered Byrd close to two million US for a champion fight last year, when the Ukrainian boxer was not a mandatory contender, but the American chose instead to fight DaVarryl Williamson for 250,000 US. This time he can’t get out of this match. But it seems that Byrd, who is already 35 years old, is not doing this just for the money. He may have been inspired by Brewster, who ended his recent foray to Germany with a victory, defeating Luan Krasniqi in a grandiose fight.

Klychko’s two defeats in two years place him in a situation where he has to prove over and over again that “he is still his old self,” that his jaw is strong, that he has a winner’s psychology, and that his left hook is one of the best in his division, like before. Let us venture to assume that if Klychko defeats Byrd, he will still have to dot the i’s in this matter. After all, a “warrior’s path” is not easy by definition. To reach the top you have to defeat other warriors. Byrd is undoubtedly one of them. But he is not the only one.