Columnist Dean Juipe: Klitschko ready to put fixed-up face to the test

Dean Juipe

Thursday, Dec. 4, 2003 | 9:42 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

The stakes are considerable as Vitali Klitschko and Kirk Johnson fight Saturday in New York.

From the World Boxing Council's position, the winner will become either the mandatory challenger to heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis or will ascend to a title fight against another opponent in the event Lewis elects to retire.

The fight also allows Klitschko an opportunity to test his patched face as well as a chance to add to his public appeal.

Johnson has his own incentives, not the least of which is overcoming his image as a passive, foul-plagued fighter who botched an earlier try at a title when he was disqualified in a 2002 bout with John Ruiz.

"I don't want to underestimate him," Klitschko said of Johnson during a conference call this week. "He's a very skilled, strong fighter.

"I hope this fight will be interesting for all boxing fans."

HBO will televise the fight from Madison Square Garden.

Klitschko is a minus 400 betting favorite in Las Vegas, with Johnson a plus 300.

"Many experts say this is a 50-50 fight," Klitschko admits of a battle between big men, as he is 6-foot-7 and 248 pounds and Johnson is 6-foot-3 and 240.

Klitschko, 32, is 32-2 with 31 knockouts and was leading Lewis on the judges' cards when their June 21 fight in Los Angeles was stopped after the sixth round and the outcome was ruled a technical victory for Lewis. Battering Lewis with right hands, Klitschko earned the crowd's respect by holding his own against the champion.

But Klitschko took some abuse as well, as Lewis opened a number of cuts on his face including one near his left eyelid that prompted the ringside physician to stop the fight. In all, 60 stitches were required to piece the Ukrainian slugger back together.

"I was very disappointed with the decision (to stop the fight with Lewis) and I feel more people have respect for me now," Klitschko said in his broken English. "Maybe more will (appreciate) me after this fight."

A rematch with Lewis was immediately proposed and backed by the WBC, but Lewis is balking and may not fight again.

"Lewis told everybody that he was not ready for Dec. 6, but for me, I feel a need to be active," Klitschko said. "To fight Lennox Lewis again is my goal (and) that's why I'm very disappointed.

"But he doesn't want to fight me right now, (and) nobody gives me a guarantee that he ever will."

If it feels as if Johnson is stepping in for Lewis, the parallel is that Klitschko stepped in for Johnson to fill the June date in Los Angeles. Johnson, 34-1-1 with 25 KOs, had been scheduled to face Lewis but pulled out with a torn pectoral muscle, opening the door for Klitschko to take the fight and impress the fans even in defeat.

"Johnson's a good boxer with a good left hand, jab and left hook," said Klitschko's trainer, Freddie Roach. "Style wise, he's a difficult opponent and I think he's going to try and out-box Vitali.

"It may not be an easy fight but Vitali didn't want an easy fight. He wants to prove to the public that he's the toughest guy out there."

Klitschko's toughness came into question when he retired on his stool with a torn ligament in his shoulder after the ninth round of a 2000 fight with Chris Byrd, but he defends that decision as the proper one under the circumstances. As for the multitude of cuts and repair work he needed after the loss to Lewis, Klitschko says everything is back to normal.

"All the doctors give me a green light," he said. "It's no problem anymore and I hope it never happens again."

"It didn't work out," Adams said of his relationship with Abdullaev, heavyweight Ruslan Chagaev, junior middleweight Kuvanych Toygonbayev and their handlers. "There were too many things that weren't right about the situation."

Abdullaev, who won a fight last month in Germany to raise his record to 12-1 and who once headlined a card in Las Vegas, has signed with the TV giant Universum and will compete exclusively in Europe, at least for a while.

"Abdullaev is a tough cookie and he could be a world champion if he stays at 140," Adams said. "But if he goes up to 147, he's not strong enough."

Chagaev is 7-0-1 and Toygonbayev is 21-1-1.

ESPN has announced that effective in February it will no longer pay promoters for televising fight cards, which will force promoters to find third-party sponsors to finance the cards. ESPN, which had been paying a $50,000 fee per card, is also dropping the number of cards it will televise in 2004 to approximately 45. ESPN defends its decision by saying its boxing cards have lost money and that ratings are down. It once paid promoters a standard fee of $65,000 and once televised as many as 60 cards a year. ... Scott McCracken, 13-5, fights Jorge Paez, 78-14-5, Friday in Phoenix, which is noteworthy only in that the Nevada State Athletic Commission continues to "red flag" Paez as a warning to other states doing business with the former lightweight world champion and his promotional company, Top Rank.