The lesson here is that a good back story and a victory over the broadly untested Denis Boytsov does not a heavyweight contender make?
An embarrassingly one-sided heavyweight title fight fought in Germany tonight ended in a fifth round knockout of Alex Leapai (now 30-5-3) by heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko (62-3). The lesson here is that a good back story and a victory over the broadly untested Denis Boytsov does not a heavyweight contender make. Klitschko will unquestionably have had more difficult afternoons in sparring.
Leapai claimed pre-fight that Wladimir would need to tear out his heart to beat him, and this he did in stages, first with the jab, and then with the right hand. Leapai, whose turgid walk-in style is literally made for Wladimir, was never going to trouble the champion, the vast difference in class demonstrated perfectly in the first round when Wladimir, moving extremely well around the shorter man, seemed to cause Leapai to fall over simply by being hard to follow.
Showing very little skill at cutting off the ring, Leapai, static and plodding, was a sitting duck for the division?s best jab, and Wladimir celebrated by landing it often, hard. He dispensed with his normal first round conservatism with the right hand, too, landing several painful looking one-twos.
In absolute control of both the range and the tempo, the second was a rerun of the first bar the three unanswered left hooks Wladimir landed, forcing Leapai back to the ropes. By the end of the third, the fight had become an exercise in endurance, and in this regard, if in no other, Leapai was impressive swallowing flush bombs from a legitimate puncher as he continued to wade forwards, to ?walk him down? as he was curtly informed by his corner at the end of every round. It is unlikely that he landed ten blows.
Punched over and over again directly in the face by a 247-pound man who is trained to deliver messages of punishment with his fists I first started to feel legitimately alarmed for the challenger during the fourth. Leapai was being hit repeatedly with sickeners, finishers, but his fighting heart demanded that he march forwards into pain. This, he did, but fighters often are too brave for their own good. I found myself glancing from the brutalized challenger to referee Eddie Cotton in the hope that he would find some reason to intervene; he did not.
Mercifully the end came in the fifth. By then, Wladmir looked like a combat specialist beating a drunk for fun, and when that drunk was dropped by a booming right-hand, confounded on his back by a fighter at least four classes removed from his own, I felt a real sense of relief. Leapai dragged himself from the canvas and the champion went back to work. Three unanswered right hands preceded the one-two that ended matters. Wladimir claimed post-fight that there were ?no easy opponents,? but that is not true. Leapai was an easy opponent.
In the end, perhaps the details matter less than the broad strokes which are these: Wladimir Klitschko beat up a physically overmatched, fisticly underqualified opponent who was out of his depth and his safety-zone. This last point cannot be stressed enough. The reason the very best fighters must be matched responsibly isn?t just a matter of creating satisfying sporting competition, though this is an important aspect. Also important is to realize that one of these ABCs is going to get an honest professional killed matching him with a champion. Wladimir, simply put, is the most dangerous boxer on earth because he is capable, with his combination of caution and power, of delivering both a sustained beating and a concussive visitation on the same night. Suffering either one of these alone is of danger to a human being.
I am sure Leapai did his best tonight, just as I am sure that he will have believed going in to the fight that he could win it, just as he will have loved securing his family?s future with a career?s best payday ? but I would insist that against his wishes and despite what the WBO had to say about it, he should have been protected from Wladimir Klitschko tonight because he was incapable of protecting himself. It was a physical and technical mismatch.
And if Wladamir allows himself to be led around by the marshals of the belts that he graces, his legacy will be compromised. Whether through incompetence or corruption, they will continue to match him with fighters who haven?t earned the shot and have no chance of seizing it. This is the oldest way of fixing fights.
Tonight, the world?s best heavyweight triumphed once more in one-sided fashion, but who, honestly, can claim to be impressed?
