It says a lot when boxing’s unified heavyweight champion of the world is making a title defense on ESPN. The sports network is known for hosting bouts between young fighters making their way up the ranks or old guys on their way out. However, this Saturday, Wladimir Klitschko (61-3-0, 51 KO) will defend his WBA, WBO and IBF titles against Alex Leapai (30-4-3, 24 KO) in Germany.
Alex Who, you ask? Exactly.
Leapai is an unknown in an unknown era of heavyweights. While Klitschko must be given credit for being a dominant champion, his dull, jab and grab style has not made many fans. Elder brother Vitali had a more exciting style (though equally awkward), but injuries, politics and a desire to see his younger brother shine caused the older Klitschko to stay in the shadows and ultimately retire.
Hopefully Wlad will follow his older brother’s footsteps into retirement soon. Other than GoT’s Joffrey, never has a reign been as despised by the masses than the current one by the younger KlitschBro.
Hopkins and Porter put on a show
AARP may have found its new spokesman. Forty-nine year old Bernard “The Alien” Hopkins continued to astound boxing fans by unifying the WBA and IBF Light Heavyweight Championships by soundly defeating Beibut Shumenov Saturday night on Showtime Championship Boxing.
Most professional prizefighters have retired well before the age of 40 and keep senior citizen sippy cups on deck as they enter their 50s. Meanwhile, Hopkins (55-6-2, 32 KO), aka the ageless wonder, used superior defense and movement to control the pace of the fight with Shumenov. He routinely (and fluidly) moved away from his opponent’s jab, limiting Shumenov’s (14-1, 9 KOs) punch output and making him vulnerable to Hopkins’ straight right potshots.
Shumenov, who doesn’t employ a trainer, could not figure out the master boxer’s style during the course of the fight. After the third round, the fight looked like a seven-year-old trying to solve advanced calculus homework. No, I’m not talking about one of those rare brainiac kids who graduate from Ivy League schools by the age of 12 and develop advanced algorithms for NASA before they can drive a car. I’m talking about the normal seven-year-old kid who watches Phineus & Ferb in his Ninjago pajamas and cries if there’s no more syrup for his French toast. Shumenov had absolutely no clue what was going on in the ring.
By the time he began applying serious pressure and throwing combinations, he was already far behind on the scorecards and weakened by the steady diet of right hands to the face. Despite being an astounding 19 years older than his opponent, Hopkins was the fresher man down the stretch and managed to drop Shumenov in the 11th round with his favorite punch.
Though the fight wasn’t close, one judge, Gustavo Padilla, inexplicably scored the bout for Shumenov 114-113. Maybe Padilla thought the fight was actually a contest to see who could headbutt their opponent’s gloves the most over 12 rounds. That’s the only way Shumenov would’ve deserved a win. Luckily he was overruled by the two sane judges who both scored the bout 116-111 for Hopkins, who won by split decision.
In the co-feature fight, IBF Welterweight Champion Shawn Porter silenced all critics, myself included, by destroying the usually-resilient Paulie Malignaggi in four rounds. Porter (24-0-1, 15 KO) displayed a surprising mix of fighting both forwards and backwards to keep Malignaggi (33-6, 7 KO) guessing. When he came forward, the stocky fighter used his brute strength and awkward punching angles to apply effective and pain-inducing pressure to his opponent.
Porter was extremely effective fighting out of clenches and had almost no problem closing the distance between himself and a man believed to be a superior technical boxer. Without punching power, Malignaggi had no answer for Porter and was put out of misery by referee Sam Williams with 1:14 left in the fourth round.
With the impressive KO, Porter has now set himself up for some potential big-money fights in the loaded welterweight division. His next bout is expected to be a mandatory title defense against UK welterweight Kell Brook (32-0-0, 22 KO). Meanwhile, Malignaggi, who is also a boxing commentator for Showtime, is contemplating retirement.
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