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Ukraine Joins WBO
Wladimir Klitschko of Ukraine triumphed in the most significant boxing event of this year. He was proclaimed the first unified heavyweight champ since Lennox Lewis once he defeated Sultan Ibragimov of Russia in the IBF/WBO Heavyweight Championship fight in New York February 23, 2008.
This victory of the Ukrainian was by far not the most spectacular in his career. But it was convincing to the extent allowing all referees to arrive at the unanimous decision. Klitschko outpointed Ibragimov 119:110, 118:110 and 117:111 at Madison Square Garden that day to become a new hero of the boxing history.
The unification bout of Klitschko and Ibragimov was the first one since 1999 when Lennox Lewis defeated Evander Holyfield in the same arena. In addition to the title, nearly $10 million was at stake at that fight.
Ibragimov had being preparing to oppose the boxer, whose physical dominance is evident, as to no other fight in his career. The bad luck was that he injured a left hand broken in 2005 a fortnight before the unification, which aborted the final portion of training and eased the jabbing path of Klitschko to the clear and dull victory.
Victorious Klitschko still has to beat WBC’s Oleg Maskaev of Russia and WBA’s Ruslan Chagaev of Uzbekistan to complete the unification. As to Ibragimov, he has a long way to climb back to the peak.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 26, 2008
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