Wladimir Klitschko had an occasion of selective amnesia recently while speaking to Andrey Krikunov of Rick Reeno’s www.boxingscene.com
The occasion was the announcement his fight with American Eddie Chambers has been moved to March of 2010.
Keep in mind this is a fighter stopped by: Ross Purity – TKO 11, Corrie Sanders TKO – 2, and Lamon Brewster TKO – 5.
Keep in mind this is considered universally the worst heavyweight division in history.
The big paychecks and fame came his way via HBO. The American public has never bought into Wladimir Klitschko. It never warmed up to him.
When a recent opponent, David Haye, dropped out and unknown in America Ruslan Chagaev was brought in, HBO said no. Maybe HBO was expecting a little loyalty from Wladimir. Maybe a better – known opponent, but not necessarily a better opponent.
HBO was smart to pass, as Chagaev was no match. But Wladimir went to ESPN for the fight anyway. Older brother, Vitali, took a fight on another ESPN channel against a beached whale in Samuel Peters.
OK, I have set it up. Here’s the quote:
“However, our fight still takes place. Besides in U.S. Vitali’s and my fights are televised on a free channel ESPN. In this case money is not a priority for me, because we have other broadcast partners. We’re selling this fight in more than 100 countries, so I think of this as a present for our fans. For the nine previous years our supporters in America could have watched our bouts only on the pay channel HBO. Now our fights are available almost for all boxing fans.”
What we have here, is an ungrateful bum! This is beyond greed and arrogance.
I can’t wait until one of the brothers loses or when they come crawling back to HBO.
HBO must be feeling good about the investment in these two. Especially because HBO was competing against itself for the broadcast rights.
