VITALY KLITSCHKO SIDELINED BY YET ANOTHER INJURY
Posted on | September 12, 2007 | No Comments
By: PATRICK MCELLIGOTT
The announcement that Vitali Klitschko had suffered another injury, which required immediate surgery on a disc in his back, came as little surprise to boxing fans. His bout with Jameel McCline, was not a clash of top
contenders. It was, however, the third interesting fight that had been scheduled for the month of September to be postponed, and in this case, probably canceled.
Klitschko had a good record: 35-2, with 34 KOs. However, he had not fought since his December 11, 2004 victory over Danny Williams. Then came a series of injuries and postponements of a scheduled fight with Hasim Rahman. The fight was first scheduled for April 30, 2005; an injury to his thigh caused it to be postponed. It was then supposed to take place on June 18; his trainers said his injuries had not healed. So the third date was set for July 23; this time, his back was the official reason the bout was called off.
In January of this year, Vitali announced that he wanted to return to the ring, and challenged WBC champion Oleg Maskaev. The WBC champion was supposed to fight the powerful young contender Samuel Peter, but he seemed to think he had a better chance of victory, for more money, against the inactive Klitschko. In one of the few examples of the WBC making a fair ruling, it was determined that Maskaev would fight Peter, with Klitschko being in line for the winner.
Klitschko is an intelligent athlete, and he recognized the benefits of having a warm-up fight before getting in the ring with Samuel Peter. Thus, he opted to schedule a fight against Jameel “Big Time” McCline. In his last
fight, which was the same month that Vitali announced his plans to return to the ring, McCline lost a disappointing TKO to Nikolay Valuev, when he suffered a freak injury to his knee, and could not continue fighting.
Although Klitschko was the betting favorite as the 9-22 fight approached, I was confident that McCline would score an upset TKO if they fought. Although Jameel has lost a number of important fights in his career, these were frequently because he has had a “sparring partner” mentality in the ring. And that isn’t really surprising.
In the late 1980s, Jameel attended SUCO, the NYS University in Oneonta, a few miles from me. He played as a tight end on the football team, and as a power forward in basketball. Like Vitali, the guy is a talented all-around
athlete, and an intelligent man.
He got into some trouble as a young man, and served some time behind bars. And it was while he was incarcerated that he began to focus on boxing. Upon release, he had one amateur fight, then turned pro. Because of his size and athletic ability, Jameel was used as a sparring partner by guys like Lennox Lewis, Tim Witherspoon, Ray Mercer, and Michael Grant.
McCline lost fights he should have won. The best example was against undefeated prospect Calvin Brock. Jameel scored an impressive knockdown, and should have been able to stop Brock, but ended up dropping a decision. But he had also lost a highly disputed decision to Chris Byrd in his fight before Brock, in which he also decked the elusive IBF champion.
Vitali’s loses also offer a window allowing us to predict how he might have conducted himself against McCline. His first loss came when he quit after 9 rounds, against Chris Byrd in 2000. In a match where he had a large lead after 9 rounds, Klitschko failed to continue due to a shoulder injury. His second loss came in a 2003 war with Lennox Lewis. Vitali demonstrated heart in a fight he would have won, if not for a gash over his left eye.
Some of Jameel’s best wins came against tall, straight-up fighters, including Michael Grant, Lance Whitaker, and Shannon Briggs. Vitali’s weaknesses are serious injuries to his shoulder, back, thigh, and knee. As a
rule, professional athletes do not come back after being retired for several years after surgery, and compete at a high level in their mid- to late 30s.
Klitschko might have been able to get into good enough shape to gamble on KOing Maskaev in two rounds. But he wasn’t going to be able to get into the shape necessary to fight McCline, much less Peter, in a 10 or 12 round fight. Jameel would have TKOed him after 5 rounds.
Vitali’s people are saying that he will be able to begin training again after six weeks. Hopefully, this will be limited to the physical therapy he needs to recover from the surgery. He should never fight again.
McCline’s future holds more possibilities. In his victory over Terry Smith, before the loss to Valuev, Jameel looked the best he has since the Byrd fight. His age is an issue, and his knee injury could become one as well.
But in today’s division, he could still do quite well.