Vitali Klitschko makes perhaps his penultimate world title defence on Saturday insisting his domination of the heavyweight scene, along with brother Wladimir, will not be remembered as a time of crisis for the division.
Ukrainian Klitschko, 40, defends his World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight title for the 10th time against Zimbabwe-born, London-based Dereck Chisora at the Olympiahalle in Munich.
After winning the title in 2004 and retiring later that year through injury only to then return in 2008, Klitschko has enjoyed an untroubled reign as champion.
Creditable opponents are running out and Klitschko has said he plans one more fight after Chisora before considering retirement to concentrate full-time on a political career in his homeland of Ukraine.
The 6ft 7in ‘Dr Iron Fist’, who last lost to Lennox Lewis in 2003, is not thinking about his boxing’s legacy just yet.
But Klitschko argued earlier this week that the heavyweight division is not currently in a slump despite his lack of serious rivals and close contests since Lewis nine years ago.
“Lewis was a big star, as was Mike Tyson, but now they’re retired and Evander Holyfield is over the hill,” he said.
“My brother and I have stopped almost everyone. Of course, any moment can bring around a new guy and right now it’s Chisora.”
“Anyone can win, but I won’t give them a chance. There’s no crisis in boxing. Many say that we have blocked the division, but that’s not true. The right motivation and skill can beat us.
“This fight won’t be easy. Everyone needs time to build their name. Both Wladimir and I are ready for anyone.”
Klitschko, whose younger brother Wladimir holds the other three versions of the world title, will run for mayor later this year on an anti-corruption platform and boxing, for Vitali, is the easy part of his life right now.
The Ukrainian, who has boxed mostly in Germany, has been relatively untroubled since losing to Lewis – despite being ahead on the scorecards – when his face was left mangled in Los Angeles.
And despite the looming prospect of retiring after a professional career that began in 1996 (43 wins, 2 losses), Klitschko feels he is not showing any signs of slowing up after preparing in the Tyrolean mountains in Austria alongside Wladimir.
“Every day I work hard in camp, but the two I have every year are like are a vacation and they are less stressful than politics,” Klitschko said.
“Politics can give me sleepless nights because of the stress and the brain is working. I know what I have to do to prepare at my age. My reflexes have not slowed.”
Chisora, 28, has been irritated by the fact that his fellow Briton David Haye, who lost on points to Wladimir in the summer, has been negotiating with Vitali for a showdown later this year.
It is evidence, Chisora believes, that the champion is overlooking him.
“He’s written me off already with all this talk of facing Haye, but I don’t care because I’m just concentrating on what I have to do,” said Chisora.
“He thinks I’m just going to turn up and fall over like the last guy I fought, but when we got in the ring he realised that wasn’t the case. His old legs will start creaking by the eighth round.”
