The Nov. 12 battle between WBC champion Vitali Klitschko and former champion Hasim Rahman is more than just a big heavyweight championship fight, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said.
It’s a fight that could rescue the sport.
“I think we’re going to see the revitalization of the heavyweight division and, as a result, a really good boost for boxing,” said Arum, in Denver last week to promote the Las Vegas bout. “Because when there’s renewed interest in the heavyweight division, that’s going to help all fighters in all classes.”
Arum, who hasn’t had a heavyweight in his stable since George Foreman retired, said the biggest problem with boxing in recent years has been the absence of a prominent American heavyweight. His hope is the Klitschko-Rahman bout will put on such a compelling show that boxing fans will want more, and that will help draw top American athletes back to the sport.
“I have an option on the winner, and I’m going to insist that the guy fight the best guy out there,” Arum said. “Let’s quit (having) these stupid fights, and then maybe these big kids from the United States (will fight). That’s the real problem, we don’t get any heavyweights in the United States anymore. We haven’t won a super heavyweight gold medal in the Olympics since 1984 (Tyrell Biggs). That’s a long time, so it’s all foreigners, and Americans want to see American kids.
“Hopefully, maybe we’ll get some of these big kids that are playing power forward or tight end, saying maybe I’ll go into boxing. When I started in boxing in the 1960s, any big guy who had athletic ability wanted to be a heavyweight fighter, because a lineman in the NFL in those years only made like $5,000 a year. In boxing, you didn’t even have to be a top boxer to make more than that for a single fight.
“But it’s going to be hard to get American kids, big American kids, back in boxing. Because if I’m a big kid, and I have any athletic ability, I’d rather go out for football or basketball with all the cheerleaders, rather than go into a gym where you’ve got to really work hard.”
That’s why the fight game needs more compelling matchups, he said, such as the upcoming fight.
“I think here we have the two best heavyweights in the world,” he said. “You have Klitschko, who in addition to being tall and having that reach, the thing that distinguishes Klitschko from a lot of other fighters is he’s such a hard man. You have a lot of good fighters, technical fighters, but there are some fighters that are hard men. (Marvin) Hagler was a hard man.
“Now you’ve got Rahman, who’s up and down, but the one thing Rahman can do is punch up at a big guy. I mean, he knocked out Lennox Lewis. Nobody could knock out Lennox Lewis because he’s so big you have to jump to hit him.
“So here you have Rahman and you have the big, hard guy who’s going to have that jab in the face and eventually wears out his opponent. So you’re going to have a very, very exciting fight that’s not just going to be a brawl.”
If Rahman wins, said Arum, he’ll probably match him against Klitschko’s brother, Wladimir, in a “revenge fight.” If Klitschko wins, he will try to match him against James Toney.
Joseph Sanchez can be reached at 303 820-5458 or jsanchez@denverpost.com.
