Some 600 participants in the World Boxing Council’s annual convention are making Kyiv their destination on Sept. 30- Oct. 7 in a testament to the growing prestige of Ukraine in the boxing world.
To acknowledge that, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman added the country’s blue-and-yellow colored flag to the sanctioning body’s championship belts during the opening ceremony at Kyiv’s Postal Square on Oct. 1, situated at the port along the Dnipro River’s west bank.
After receiving the upgraded version of the waist-lined trophy from the WBC president, former heavyweight boxing champion and current Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko asked him whether it will be on all the championship belts.
“Yes, on all belts that will be hoisted onto champions,” Sulaiman replied on stage inside a heated white-hued circus tent where delegates, officials, current and former boxers assembled from 160 countries.
They included current undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk of Ukraine’s territory of Crimea, the mayor’s younger brother and also former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, and other legends like Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis.
“Ukraine has become one of the leaders in boxing worldwide. It is a sensational land of champions. This convention will usher in a new era of Ukrainian boxing,” Sulaiman told the Kyiv Post before the ceremony started.
Asked of his first impressions of Ukraine, the Mexican WBC president said that “I love (it), the wind is cold, but the warmth of the people, their smiles, their hospitality is exemplary and lovely.”
Presenting annual reports, voting and other bureaucratic procedures weren’t the only things on the agenda.
Sulaiman opened a Ukrainian boxing hall of fame, and the WBC donated money for a new boxing gym in Kyiv’s northern Obolon neighborhood as well as paid a visit to a children’s orphanage in the same community on Oct. 2.
“Together with the Klitschko Foundation we’ll transfer and exchange technology, training, and the development of boxing to the gymnasium,” the WBC president.
Perhaps the highlight of the opening day was a round-by-round commentary by Vitali Klitschko and Lennox Lewis of their heavyweight championship fight that took place on June 21, 2003 in Los Angeles.
It was for the WBC belt – three other boxing governing bodies recognize each other legitimately: the International Boxing Federation, World Boxing Association and World Boxing Organization.
Klitschko lost by technical knockout after the ringside doctor stopped the fight due to profuse bleeding from at least three facial cuts. The Ukrainian boxer had been winning on judicial scorecards after stoppage before the seventh round started.
Lewis, at that time approaching 38, admitted to have underestimated his opponent aged six years younger at the time. He was supposed to fight another boxer who pulled out just 10 days prior to the fight with a chest injury.
Former heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis speaks with Kyiv Post at the gala dinner of the World Boxing Council’s 56th convention in Kyiv on Oct. 1. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
“I never faced a boxer like (Vitaliy) Klitschko,” the Briton said during the commentary of their screening of the match on stage. “He was awkward. His stance was such that he would step back while punching.”
Klitschko dominated in the early rounds connecting with jabs and left-right hand combinations but never managed to follow through. Lewis said he “woke up” in the second round after his younger opponent hurt him with persistent shots.
The reigning champion cut Klitschko under his left eye towards the end of the third round, which turned the tide because that offered him “a target,” he said.
Still, Lewis was confident he would win “because he has never faced anybody like me, anybody like me to be under that kind of pressure. Although he started fast and was getting the better of me for the first three rounds, I started to mount my attack. I don’t think he would’ve lasted because from the second round I was huffing.”
His strategy was to get Klitchko into a “street fight” and out of boxing,” Lewis told the Kyiv Post during the WBC gala dinner on Oct. 1 and his fourth time to Ukraine.
Klitschko erupted in indignation after the doctor stopped the fight. His opponent insists that had the bout continued, “I would have knocked him out by the eight round.
“Look…I had caught my second wind after adjusting in the fourth, fifth round that’s why I say that,” he said. “I also say that if we were to fight again, I would’ve won more securely because I know he has a weakness (pointing to his head indicating skin cutting easily), so he would have that weakness in the second fight, in our fight I cut him three places around his eye, so there you go. A cut in the mouth as well, so that’s why I say that.”
Following the memorable fight, Lewis retired as the first reigning heavyweight champion since American Rocky Marciano in 1956.
On stage, Lewis said he watched his fight with Klitschko “more than 30 times” afterward and would’ve agreed to a rematch had “Klitschko called his mother a bad name but Vitalii is such a nice guy.”
Rise of Ukrainian boxing
The Klitschko brothers dominated the heavyweight division for at least a decade until 2017. In their place are Usyk, the current undisputed cruiserweight champion, and Vasyl Lomachnko who holds titles in three weight classes, the highest being lightweight.
Asked to comment on their rise, among others, Lewis gave a straightforward response.
“The fact that they take it seriously, he said. “When the rest of the world was sleeping, they were saying, ‘no, we want to be good professionals. We see the Americans doing it just the same.’ Just working at it. The Klitschkos focused at it as brothers. And they’ve done a good job.”
Usyk’s chances versus Bellew on Nov. 10
Usyk will defend his four belts in Manchester against Tony Bellew of the U.K. Usyk will go toe to toe with a former cruiserweight champion who will drop at least 15 pounds from the heavyweight division where he currently fights.
The Liverpudlian has said that he’ll sustain more blows but will win the bout.
“Bellew says that before any fight. No matter how strong his opponent is,” Usyk’s manager, Alexander Karrasyuk, told the Kyiv Post at the WBC conference. “The best thing about the…fight is that Bellew has never faced an opponent like Usyk with such a high level of skills. This will be a real problem, a real challenge for him. You can hit hard and see the target, but when you can’t see whom to hit that is a problem.”
Comfortable Evander Holyfield
Former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield was relaxed and not concerned about Usyk having broken his record.
After defeating Russian Murat Gassiev in July, Usyk broke Holyfield’s record for unifying the cruiserweight belts in fewer bouts.
Former heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield speaks with Kyiv Post at the gala dinner of the World Boxing Council’s 56th convention in Kyiv on Oct. 1. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
After unifying the division’s belts, Usyk has said his goal is to move up to the heavyweight class just like Holyfield did 30 years ago where he went on to become champion in 1990.
He bested formidable opponents James Douglas, George Foreman, Riddick Bowe and Mike Tyson.
Yet Holyfield was uninterested in Usyk’s feat.
“Records are meant to be broken…I haven’t seen Usyk fight. People who are successful need to understand that. So you might as well help someone to break the record.”
He offered general advice as well: “I never knew what quitting means. That’s how I became heavyweight champion. You have to learn and make adjustments. My first coach told me that I’ll become champion if I listen, follow instructions and learn.”
