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VITALI KLITSCHKO, HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMP AND RENAISSANCE MAN, HARBORS DREAMS OF WORLD DOMINATION
Tuesday, Aug 25, 2009 11:21PM / Standard Entry
The Ukrainian-born boxer speaks four languages and raises millions to help children in his homeland. He foresees a day when he or his brother own all four of the most coveted heavyweight titles.
Forget your preconceived notions, your visions of Mike Tyson-like characters, and meet Vitali Klitschko, World Boxing Council heavyweight boxing champion.
He lives with his wife and three children in Bel-Air, speaks four languages, quotes French philosophers, has a doctorate in sports sciences and speaks passionately about the need to improve the lives of people in his childhood home of Kiev, Ukraine.
Klitschko has a foundation that has raised millions of dollars toward that goal and will be his main focus when his boxing days have ended.
He dotes on his little brother, an inch shorter at 6 feet 6 and a similar fighting weight of 255 pounds -- and who holds two other world heavyweight titles.
"He is the closest person in the world to me," Vitali, 38, says of Wladimir, 33.
Vitali says he won't ever fight his little brother, mainly because his mother, back home in Kiev, "might have a heart attack." Another reason, he says, smiling with much more pride than fear, is that Wladimir "is a dangerous opponent."
Right now, the heavyweight division in boxing is the Klitschko Division. That has served the sport well in Europe, especially Germany, where their fights sell out soccer stadiums and bring huge TV ratings. But in the good ol' USA, fans remember the Ali-Frazier-Foreman era and wonder whatever happened to Tyson. The Klitschkos are barely on the radar.
If they are at all, it is because of Vitali's battle with champion Lennox Lewis at Staples Center on June 21, 2003. Two rounds ahead on all three cards after six rounds, Klitschko lost the fight when the ring doctor took a long look at an ugly cut over his left eye and said no mas.
It took 63 stitches to close the cut. Today, Klitschko has no scar and only memories of what might have been, from a fight that created perhaps the most buzz of any heavyweight title fight since Tyson chomped on Evander Holyfield's ear in 1997. Klitschko says the cut had not caused him any vision problems, that his handlers had it under control by the sixth round, and that the doctor summoned to his corner by the referee had been called to look at a cut on his lip, not his eye.
Still, even Klitschko has to admit it was gruesome.
"When I looked at the film later," he says, "I said: 'Oh, my God.' "
He says his wife, Natalie, watching from ringside, was horrified.
"She was sitting next to Sylvester Stallone," Klitschko says, "and he told her this was bloodier than the movie."
When Klitschko fights again at Staples, that memory may actually sell some tickets. That will be Sept. 26, against local favorite Chris Arreola of Riverside, who is 10 years younger than Klitschko and has 24 knockouts in his 27-0 record.
It is a fight that has a chance to return some of the attention to boxing's heavyweights. It certainly has a chance to shine some light on the fascinating story and personality of Vitali Klitschko.
The son of a Soviet air force colonel and a schoolteacher, he moved to Kiev in 1985. It was the year before the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, 100 miles to the north. He and Wladimir were the family's only two children. Vitali was 14 when the accident took place. He recalls his father, as a member of the military, having more information and a better idea of how serious it was, calling home and telling the family not to open their mouths, to breathe through their noses.
"He said to wash our hands a lot, to stay inside," Klitschko says.
The accident happened April 26, and the sacrosanct Soviet May Day celebration on May 1, with children parading through the streets of Kiev, went on as planned.
"We had to go," Klitschko says. "There was no choice." Four years later, one of his friends who seemed completely healthy, suddenly became ill and died within a week. "It was leukemia . . . the radiation," Klitschko says.
He says when he and his brother are together they often get teased for being so big. He says he just tells people they are products of the radiation, that they are "a Chernobyl side effect."
More seriously, he says his father, now 62, has cancer.
In addition to his home in Bel-Air, he lives part of the year in Hamburg, Germany, site of many of his fights, and another part of the year in Kiev. All three children -- Egor Daniel, 9; Elizabeth, 7; and Max, 4 -- were born in the United States and so are U.S. citizens. Max was born several days after the death of Max Schmeling, the former German heavyweight champion and Klitschko's friend, and was named for him.
It is Schmeling's influence that brings Klitschko to his third fight at Staples, more than any other boxing headliner there, including one whose statue is out front, Oscar De La Hoya.
"Max told me one time," Klitschko says, "if you want to be a real world champion, you need to fight in the United States."
Tyson had an influence too.
"I was 15," Klitschko says, "and we would find a TV to watch Tyson's fights. In those days of the Soviet Union, fighting professionally was not allowed. Everything was for the state and for the Olympics. But we would watch, and when I saw Tyson win the heavyweight title [at age 20, over Trevor Berbick] and I saw how young he was, I stood up in front of my friends and told them I would one day win that title. I was just a skinny kid and they laughed at me.
"Then, when I won the title, I went home to Kiev and called up all those same friends who were there the night I said that. I invited them to a restaurant. They got there, we sat down, and I took out the same belt that Tyson had won and put it on the table.
"I have a memory like an elephant."
Klitschko fought three more times after the Lennox Lewis fight, then was out for nearly four years after rotator cuff surgery. He returned to take back his title with an eight-round technical knockout of Samuel Peter on Oct. 11, 2008, in Berlin. His most recent fight was March 21 in Stuttgart, where he beat Juan Carlos Gomez with a TKO in the ninth.
Of the four most-sought heavyweight belts in a sea of alphabet soup sanctioning groups, the Klitschko brothers have three -- Wladimir the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Organization and Vitali the WBC. The fourth, the World Boxing Assn., is held by Russian Nikolay Valuev.
"My dream is for the Klitschko brothers to hold all four at the same time," Vitali says.
Klitschko avoids predictions for his match with Arreola, other than one that befits a boxer who has never been knocked down, never taken a standing count and whose 37-2 record includes 36 knockouts.
"I promise one thing," he says. "I do not know who the winner will be, but the fight won't go 12 rounds."
That's as much trash-talking as you'll get from a man who plays chess, ran for mayor of Kiev in 2006 and was once honored by the United Nations for his work as a humanitarian.###
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"THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA"
Monday, Aug 10, 2009 5:43AM / Standard Entry
Hi, guys.
I recently watched “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada,” the 2005 feature directorial debut of Tommy Lee Jones, for the second time. Now that I think about it, it's hard for me to believe that I haven't actually seen the film for several years. Why? Because it has stayed with me ever since my first viewing.
For those of you who may not be familiar with the film, it’s the story of a Texas ranch hand who looks to fulfill the promise he made to his recently deceased best friend by burying him in his hometown in Mexico.
The screenplay, written by Guillermo Arriaga (“Amores Perros,” “21 Grams”), won Best Original Screenplay at Cannes and Jones won Best Actor. The fact that the film was completely ignored by the Academy, but picked up four Independent Spirit Award Nominations, only seems to further bolster my opinion that the former means less and less with each passing year.
Interestingly, in addition to acting and directing, Jones translated Arriaga's script from Spanish to English himself and shot the majority of the film on his own ranch in Texas.
Anyway, if you haven’t seen the film and would like to watch something that somebody really cared about, I highly recommend "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada."
-Dax
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3k1iBYa5Z4
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KLITSCHKO, ARREOLA AGREE TO TITLE FIGHT
Thursday, Aug 6, 2009 5:04AM / Standard Entry
By Dan Rafael
ESPN.comHandlers for heavyweight titlist Vitali Klitschko and Cristobal Arreola of Riverside, Calif., have reached an agreement to fight Sept. 26 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, the camps told ESPN.com on Wednesday.
Klitschko had been making plans to defend his title against England's David Haye on Sept. 12 in Germany, but that was before Haye snubbed him. Instead of signing the contract that had been agreed to with Klitschko, Haye instead signed to fight titlist Nikolai Valuev in November, leaving Klitschko to look for a new opponent.
He found one in Arreola, the hard-punching contender aiming to become the first fighter of Mexican decent to win a piece of the heavyweight crown.
Although Klitschko-Arreola has not been signed, it has been agreed to, Klitschko manager Bernd Boente told ESPN.com.
"It will happen," Boente said.
Henry Ramirez, Arreola's trainer, also confirmed that the deal had been struck.
"The fight's done. It's a done deal," Ramirez told ESPN.com. "It worked out to our benefit with whatever B.S. David Haye was pulling with Klitschko."
Boente said that a news conference to make the formal announcement is scheduled for Aug. 13 at the Staples Center. HBO will have live coverage of the fight in the United States.
Klitschko (37-2, 36 KOs) will be returning to the arena where he fought his two most significant fights. In June 2003, he challenged then-champion Lennox Lewis for the title and lost on a sixth-round TKO because of severe cuts around his left eye. It was a dramatic and action-packed fight, which Klitschko led on all three scorecards at the time of the stoppage.
Lewis retired and Klitschko returned to Los Angeles 10 months later to stop South Africa's Corrie Sanders in the eighth round to win the vacant title.
"Vitali is very happy that he can fight again in the U.S. and especially in L.A., where his fight against Lennox Lewis was his international breakthrough and where he beat Sanders to win the WBC title the first time," Boente said. "Both events were huge successes and almost sold out. I think this is a very interesting fight with two fighters who have great knockout percentages and only very few people think this fight goes the distance. ... We are looking forward to [coming] back to the U.S. again, which is still a very important market for us."
For Arreola (27-0, 24 KOs), 28, it will be an opportunity to make history in front of a home crowd. He lives 45 minutes away in Riverside.
"We're very excited," Ramirez said. "It's a great opportunity for Cris. I definitely feel he has a big challenge in front of him. Some people think we have no business in the ring with Klitschko and that's OK. There will always be naysayers. I know one thing -- Cris will leave everything in the ring to win that title. Nobody is going to question his desire. He will fight his fight and he's going to make history. We're not coming for any moral victories. We've going to win the damn fight."
Talks for the fight went smoothly, the key issue being the date. Klitschko had hoped to keep Sept. 12 but relented and pushed it back to Sept. 26 to accommodate Arreola, who didn't think he could be ready that quickly.
Ramirez said Arreola had been anticipating an Oct. 3 HBO fight against former titlist Oleg Maskaev before the Klitschko fight came up.
"Once they came back and said Sept. 26, we said fine," Ramirez said. "Cris has been in the gym for over two weeks. He's working out twice a day and we're relocating our camp on Sunday from Riverside to the San Fernando Valley. We'll just get a little bit away from everybody. [Strength and conditioning coach] Darryl Hudson will go with us. We're all on the same page."
Klitschko, 38, is 6-foot-7, 250 pounds and will be making the second defense. He has been dominant in his two fights since ending an injury-induced retirement that lasted almost four years. When he returned to the ring in October 2008, he thrashed Samuel Peter over eight lopsided rounds to regain his old alphabet title. In a March 21 mandatory defense, Klitschko routed former cruiserweight titlist Juan Carlos Gomez in a ninth-round knockout.
Arreola, who 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds, has yet to face any significant opponents, although he is coming off a fourth-round knockout in April of faded title challenger Jameel McCline.
Ramirez said he's not concerned about Arreola wilting under the pressure of his first title shot.
"Mentally, Cris won't be overcome by the event or get caught up in the moment," he said. "He can rise to the occasion. He'll never be consumed by the moment. This is the first real opponent that I think Cris has truly respected and he has been preparing as such. I don't think there was that kind of respect for McCline or [Travis] Walker. Cris never respected any of those guys. He respects Klitschko and the people will see much improved head movement and footwork, a better all around game plan. It's a huge fight and it will be an exciting fight."
Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.
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"FINAL CUT: THE MAKING AND UNMAKING OF 'HEAVEN'S GATE'"
Saturday, Jul 25, 2009 10:38AM / Standard Entry
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R.I.P. ARTURO GATTI
Sunday, Jul 12, 2009 10:39AM / Standard Entry
By Chris MannixArturo Gatti won't be remembered by anyone for his superior boxing skills. His name won't be recalled for the handful of titles he won over the course of a 16-year career. And, to be fair, Gatti won't be canonized as one of the greatest fighters in his weight class. But he will be remembered for one thing, something perhaps no fighter will ever be able to match.
His heart.
Before boxers became movie stars and before fighters were more concerned with avoiding punishment than inflicting it on their opponent, their was Arturo Gatti, a 5-7 human cyclone who regularly thrust his skull in harms way, who broke his hand five times in his career and who once said that he "liked to bleed." Gatti, who was found dead in a Brazil hotel room on Saturday, was a warrior's warrior, a relentless puncher who was never happier than when he was standing toe-to-toe with an opponent -- any opponent -- and trading haymakers.
His signature moments came in an epic trilogy of fights with Mickey Ward, the first of which is considered by many boxing historians to be among the greatest fights of all time. In that fight -- a furious flurry of fists that nearly killed both men -- Gatti was battered and bruised in ways that few fighters allow themselves to be today. His lone motivations was winning, and despite dropping that first fight in the narrowest of decisions he rebounded to take the next two from Ward in decisive fashion.
"You can kill him and kill him and kill him," Ward once said. "But he'll just get back up and get back up and get back up."
It's unfortunate that many people will remember Gatti as the shell of the fighter who limped his way to two lopsided defeats at the end of his career; the first to welterweight champion Carlos Baldomir in 2006 and the second to journeyman Alfonso Gomez in '07. Because Gatti was so much more than that. In his prime, Gatti was as flashy as Oscar De La Hoya, pounding opponents -- he won 26 of his first 27 fights, 13 in the opening round -- and captivating crowds with his heavy handed style and engaging personality. In Atlantic City, Gatti's adopted home where he fought many of his fights, Gatti was as beloved as De La Hoya in Los Angeles or Julio Cesar Chavez in Mexico. The blue-collar south Jersey crowd admired him for his courage and loved him for his willingness to absorb a big shot if it meant he could deliver an even bigger one.
His peers admired him too, as several attested to in a 2004 Sports Illustrated story:
He reminds me of me," said former middleweight champ Jake LaMotta. "He takes a lot of shots to the head and doesn't care."
"He's a gutsy fighter of action who thinks his way through a match in a way you don't see anymore," said Tony DeMarco, who became king of the welterweights in '55. "Nobody today is tougher than Gatti. Nobody."
"He slugs it out as if he's in a barroom: Whatever's in front of him, he pounds down," said former light heavyweight champ Dwight Qawi. "He's got finesse, but [you wouldn't know it looking at] his face."
In a few years, Gatti's name will begin to fade. His record (40-9) is far from exceptional and the next generation of boxing fans will only be able to measure the greatness of Gatti if they choose to dig a little deeper. Here's hoping they do; they will surely find something special.
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Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZvr0Bl_uPs&feature=related
-Dax
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