Wladimir Klitschko’s dominance of challenger Kubrat Pulev last month was both dramatic and yet also in keeping with his career, which for the last several years have been a succession of such dominant performances. Yet at least as important to the rest of Klitschko’s career as his big win over Pulev was the HBO three-fight deal that went with the network’s decision to broadcast the fight in the United States. analyzing
Klitschko’s HBO Boxing Deal
The next fight in that deal is already penciled in, although the contracts have yet to be signed. The Ukrainian champ now has an April 25 U.S. fight date on HBO, ostensibly with American contender Bryant Jennings. If Jennings isn’t game and prefers to continue to pursue a fight with the winner of the Bermane Stiverne vs. Deontay Wilder clash for the WBC’s (de facto American) heavyweight strap, Klitschko would likely stay in Germany and dance with another opponent on another mid-Spring date.
Giant Briton Tyson Fury, one of the few Top 10 heavyweights who exceeds Klitschko in the size department, will also likely figure in Klitschko’s near future. When Fury knocked Derek Chisora’s block off last month, he earned mandatory challenger status for one of Klitschko’s belts. Klitschko vs. Fury is a marketable fight, so I doubt HBO will decline it, and Klitschko himself has never dropped a belt rather than face a mandatory challenger, whatever the reason. If that fight doesn’t happen, it will be because Fury gets on his bicycle and pedals hard in the other direction.
Scuttlebutt also has it that with HBO able to draw Dr. Steelhammer to America, a clash between the winner of Stiverne vs. Wilder and Klitschko to unify all the belts might be in the works. Certainly if any network is now placed to make that fight happen, it is HBO, although once again it is far from a sure thing that Wilder or Stiverne would want to hazard their title in a fight with the division’s kingpin.
It is too early to tell if Klitschko will fight any of these guys, but certainly a three fight run that put two of them on top of walloping Kubrat Pulev would be a fine capstone to his career. That could very well be what Klitschko is thinking.
Curtains In Sight For Klitschko?
Whereas most fighters jump at the chance for a major fight deal with HBO, for Klitschko it is actually not that great a deal. He currently gets about $6 million a fight from his German network, and speculation says he would earn about half that to fight Jennings. Something might be missing in those calculations, but I suspect that Klitschko isn’t coming over the Atlantic for the dollars and cents.
Instead, I believe Big Wlad signed the deal with HBO because it helps him with his end game. By the time the deal is done, it should be mid-2016 and Klitschko will be 41. For a long time I and other observers have been speculating as to what Klitschko’s endgame might be, and I think this is it: use HBO to showcase his dominance before a larger audience, and use the cable TV giant to maneuver some of the harder-to-reach heavyweight contenders into the ring with him.
In other words, HBO is not his mealticket, but his ticket to go out with a bang. My guess he is hoping to bag big wins in front of a much larger, predominately American audience, and make that the closing argument of his claim to a place with history’s great heavyweights.
