Former World Heavyweight Champion Wladimir Klitschko has officially announced his retirement from competitive Boxing following his eleventh round TKO loss at the hands of Britain’s Anthony Joshua at the Wembley Stadium on Saturday. The Ukrainian who, along with his now retired older brother Vitali, once dominated the Heavyweight Division but many observers accused them of being too boring and deliberately avoiding each other. Still, a lot of people weren’t surprised by the outcome of the 41-year-old Wladimir’s latest bout given his age and his poor recent record against British Boxers.
In his previous fight against Tyson Fury back in November 2015, Klitschko also lost. On that occasion it was via unanimous decision. Speaking at a news conference today in Berlin, the Germany-based Pugilist said:
“This was a very devastating loss for me. After Anthony had knocked me down in the fifth round I knew that I had to recover quickly and when I scored my own knockdown in the sixth I thought that I was going to win the fight. Unfortunately for me I underestimated his punching power.”
Klitschko then spoke about his poor recent record against British Boxers as he continued:
“Based on my recent history against them it is quite obvious that British Boxers are my Achilles Heel and even though I did defeat David Haye back in 2011, it wasn’t exactly my most memorable performance.”
He then mentioned his age being a factor in his loss and eventual decision to retire as he went on:
“You know when you reach my age it’s kind of hard to maintain that type of high level of performances. After all I am 41 and Anthony is only 27 so who really had the advantage? I swear that if I were ten years younger Anthony wouldn’t have stood a ghost of a chance against me. I thought that I could have pulled off a George Foreman-like performance but sometimes you have to know when to call it quits and that is exactly what I am doing. I have absolutely no regrets because at least I can say that I was once the World Heavyweight Champion of three major sanctioning bodies - the WBA, IBF and WBO."
Klitschko then quite surprisingly, took a slight uh…..jab at the current state of Heavyweight Boxing as he concluded:
“One must admit that this is a bad time to be a Heavyweight Champion in Boxing. Besides, people these days are more excited about MMA anyway.”
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Comments
Here is the clear master of deflecting attention. :(.
I love this. :)
And your point is? I don't know. :)
I don't really understand... and yet I do understand.