Wladimir Klitschko, left, poses for photographs with Sultan Ibragimov, right, to promote their upcoming heavyweight unification fight Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008 in New York.
Photo: AP
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The Champ Reduction
IBF champ Wladimir Klitschko of Ukraine will fight WBO leader Sultan Ibragimov of Russia this Saturday Feb. 23, 2008 at New York's Madison Square Garden. The unification bout for a single title holder has been anticipated for a decade.
The figures alone prove the special status of the upcoming bout between Klitschko and Ibragimov that will be broadcast live on HBO's World Championship Boxing. The budget of $10 million is the biggest for any show covering the central fight of superheavyweights in the past ten years. People in 200 countries will see it, making its TV audience equal to the audience of top football matches. Some 400 additional seats emerged in Madison Square Garden yesterday to add to 20,000 seats of the legendary arena. Indeed, even the public training of two boxers lured several hundred.
Who is going to win the fight is the main question today. Bookmakers favor Klitschko at from 1.25 to 1.5, which isn’t surprising in view of the physical dominance of Wladimir and his aggressive promotion.
But the actual outcome is unpredictable and scenario of the bout is unclear. Opinions differ. Alexander Zolkin, Russia’s first heavyweight challenging the WBO title in 1996, stakes on Klitschko, reasoning that Sultan isn’t aggressive enough to set off Wladimir’s advantage in height and in weight. But legendary Evander Holifield, who yielded to the Russian in Khodynka past October, forecasts the toughest fight for the Ukrainian as he will oppose an extremely clever boxer able to adjust during the battle.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 22, 2008
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