Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko’s bravery for Ukraine, Colbert’s life-changing car crash and more thoughts from the boxing world.
Eight rounds while the boxing world waits for Canelo Álvarez to decide what’s next …
8. Boxing is a dangerous sport. But those dangers pale in comparison to the perils facing Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, former heavyweight champions who are on the literal front lines of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Vitali, the mayor of Kyiv, told Britain’s ITV that he intends to pick up a weapon and fight back against the Russians. “It’s already a bloody war,” said Vitali. “I don’t have a choice.” Wladimir, standing side by side with his brother, posted a video on social media imploring Ukraine’s international partners to pay attention to a “senseless war” that “is not going to have any winners.” Make no mistake: The Klitschko brothers are willing to fight to defend their country. As courageous as boxers are for getting in the ring, the courage the Klitschkos are showing is on another level.
7. On Saturday, Chris Colbert, an undefeated super featherweight contender, will face Hector Garcia. Last September, Colbert nearly lost his life. Colbert, who dabbles in music, was driving home late at night from a recording studio in New Jersey when a car attempted to pass him on a one way. Exhausted, Colbert says he attempted to avoid a collision but his SUV veered off the road, crashing head on into a telephone pole. Miraculously, he walked away without any injuries. He did, however, walk away with a lesson.
“It just put in my head like, ‘Yo, I need to really focus up, and not worry about shit that’s not boxing,’” Colbert told Sports Illustrated in a telephone interview. “It just made me think life was short, like you got to be careful, you got to always put yourself first and make sure you take care of yourself. I have to do what I have to do now for my family, my son, my future kids and all of that. So I got to focus up and stop worrying about shit that I don’t need to be worrying about.”
6. An Andre Ward-Gennady Golovkin social media spat isn’t what I expected in 2022, but I’m here for it. This week, Ward, responding to a tweet asking about fights he wished he had, cited Golovkin, claiming the middleweight champion turned down an offer in “five minutes.” Golovkin, who is not the most active Twitter user, shot back, refuting Ward’s claim and declaring Ward was “still angry since that you never sold tickets like me.”
For clarity, at least from Golovkin’s side, I reached out to Tom Loeffler, Golovkin’s longtime promoter, for more information on why a fight between Golovkin and Ward never happened.
“So in 2015, we had announced the David Lemieux fight,” Loeffler said. “So Gennady’s committed to fighting Lemieux on Pay-Per-View. His first Pay-Per-View fight and he’s headlining MSG in a unification fight. After we make the announcement, I’m over in Europe and I get this offer from Roc Nation saying, ‘We’d like to propose Triple G against Andre Ward at 168 [pounds], it’s a 50/50 split.’ I said, ‘Okay, that sounds great, except we just announced the Lemieux fight.’ Which they obviously knew about because there was a ton of publicity around it, and we were committed. And I put this in the letter, the response, that if he beats Lemieux, then he’s guaranteed the winner of Canelo-Miguel Cotto, which was that December. You’re not going to blow an opportunity to fight Canelo and go to a Ward fight.”
“That was pretty much my response. And then I said, ‘If he beats the Cotto-Canelo winner, he probably would want to just unify at middleweight, and then he would consider fighting Ward at 168.’ Then right away, Andre jumped on, said, ‘Triple G turned down my offer.’ That was his publicity line. HBO told me that Ward had already agreed to move to 175 to fight Kovalev and that he was going to make this offer, so they could use that as publicity to say, ‘Okay, Triple G won’t fight me at 168. I’m going to move to 175.’ That’s what HBO told me at the time. It was just a contrived situation.”
Loeffler revealed that he first approached HBO about fighting Ward in 2013, when Ward was preparing to face Edwin Rodríguez. According to Loeffler, he was told Rodríguez was set to make $1 million to face Ward. Loeffler informed HBO that Golovkin, who was still working to establish himself in the U.S., would move up to face Ward for that purse. “I don’t know if it got to Andre, but [Ward’s promoter] Dan [Goossen’s] response was that they were going to go with Edwin Rodriguez because it was an easier fight,” Loeffler said. “If you remember Ward was coming off that shoulder surgery and they didn’t want to fight Triple G at that time. That’s something that’s never really come out, but that was clearly communicated to the HBO.”
5. I like a Demetrius Andrade-Zach Parker fight, which is ticketed for the UK after Frank Warren won a purse bid this week to promote the interim super middleweight title fight. I’m disappointed, though, that Jaime Munguía, the popular 160-pound contender who is coming off a three round whipping of D’Mitrius Ballard last week, only now seems interested in pursuing a middleweight belt. Andrade would have given Munguía a title shot any time over the last three years. What was Munguía waiting for?
4. Little bit of news, courtesy of Richard Schaefer, president of Probellum: There is an agreement in principle in place for bantamweight champions Nonito Donaire and Naoya Inoue to meet in the first half of this year. Schaefer told SI there were still details that needed to be sorted out but that he and Teiken Promotions, which represents Inoue in Japan, were on the same page. Donaire and Inoue waged a memorable war in 2019, a fight Inoue won by unanimous decision to become unified champion—and win the 118-pound version of the World Boxing Super Series.
3. Want a reason to believe undisputed junior welterweight champion Josh Taylor, set to defend his titles against mandatory challenger Jack Catterall on Saturday, will vacate his belts and move up after this fight? Try this: 11% of Taylor’s purse will go to sanctioning bodies. That’s right, to call himself undisputed champion Taylor will have to surrender six figures, an insane requirement. Titles are great. Money is better.
2. Kell Brook, fresh off a terrific performance against Amir Khan, should fight again. Here’s why: For years, Brook, 35, has been dictated by opponents. He moved up to 160 pounds to face Gennady Golovkin. He then dropped down to 147 when the IBF made him defend his welterweight title against Errol Spence. Khan decreed that their fight would be contested at 149-pounds. For many of his recent fights, Brook has been fighting at less-than-comfortable weights.
After beating Khan, Brook can now make his opponents uncomfortable. If rising welterweight contender Conor Benn wants a fight, he can move up to 154. If middleweight Chris Eubank wants a go, he can drop down to 155. Brook has one more massive payday left to collect. If he wants it, he can do it on his own terms.
1. Anyone else getting excited for Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano?
More Boxing Coverage:
• Retired Ukrainian Boxer Wladimir Klitschko Condemns Vladimir Putin
• Boxing Pound-for-Pound Rankings: Oleksandr Usyk Looks Elite in Heavyweight Division
• Boxing Notes: Canelo’s Next Move, Andrade’s Weight Class Change and More