Big Boxing Interview with Vitali Klitschko – On Dereck Chisora, Mike Tyson …
Big Boxing Interview with Vitali Klitschko – On Dereck Chisora, Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis and more
By Special Report on Doghouse Boxing (Feb 16, 2012)
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NEW
YORK, NY – World
Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champion VITALI KLITSCHKO (43-2, 40 KOs), of Kyiv, Ukraine,
defends his title against world-rated contender Dereck Chisora (15-3,
9 KOs), of London, England This
Saturday! February 18, in Olympiahalle
in Munich, Germany. Klitschko vs. Chisora kicks off the
first of three heavyweight title fights, which will be broadcast live to the
U.S. on three consecutive Saturdays, exclusively on EPIX, the multiplatform
premium entertainment service. EpixHD.com will stream the fights live as part of a special free trial offer for boxing fans. The EPIX live telecast and the
EpixHD.com live stream will begin at 4:30 p.m. ET / 1:30 p.m.
PT.
Travis
Pomposello: I’d like to start off by
just taking a look back in time for EPIX. March 19th, 2011, EPIX launched its boxing program, with Vitali Klitschko
defending his title against No. 1 contender Odlanier Solis, which was a real
honor and privilege for us in our inaugural fight.
That fight, of course, didn’t go the way anybody wanted it to, especially
Solis, and it’s a year later and we have the privilege of being back on the air
with Vitali Klitschko defending his heavyweight title against Dereck Chisora,
which is the kickoff, to our trilogy of heavyweight championship fights on three
consecutive weekends.
When we aired our original fight on March 19th; although that fight you
know didn’t last much more than a round, we really got our answer about starting
a boxing program on EPIX by having over 100,000 people log in to watch the live
stream of that fight in the U.S. on EpixHD.com. Here we are, a year later, strong in the
boxing business, with these three heavyweight championship fights and having
Vitali back on our air, just about a year later; defending his title and an
opponent that we think will be a quality fight this time
round.
Tom Loeffler: We’re
really excited over here, being in Germany. We just had the open workout today,
where Vitali and Dereck Chisora were both in the ring. It was a great turnout. There were over 1,000 people at the
Mercedes dealership, here in Munich. It’s one of their flagship locations. And we had a couple hundred tickets left
before the open workout and now it’s completely sold out. The capacity at the Olympiahalle over
here; it’s the old Olympic stadium in Munich. It’s 12,500 and it’s completely sold out
as of today.
So everyone’s excited about the fight. Everyone in Europe saw the fight that
Dereck Chisora put on against Robert Helenius. In fact EPIX broadcast that fight live
to the U.S., so there’s a lot of excitement. In fact, the way he fought against
Helenius shows he’s a real challenger for the heavyweight title that Vitali
holds.
Vitali’s proven himself with his knockout percentage and Vitali’s the
type of fighter that doesn’t just win fights; he wins rounds. He rarely loses a round during a fight
and he’s got such a high knockout percentage; he always brings a lot of
excitement in the ring.
At this point though, I’d like to introduce another one of our K2
fighters. He’s fighting as the
co-feature on the show and we’re excited that EPIX is also broadcasting his
fight. It’s a 12-round heavyweight
fight. It’s Jonathan Banks out of
Detroit, Michigan. He’s defending
his NABF title. Johnathan’s rated
number 5 in the WBC and he’ll be fighting Nicolai Firtha from Akron, Ohio. So you have two U.S. fighters fighting
over here and we’re excited about that fight as the co-feature on the
show.
I’d like to introduce Jonathan at this point.
Jonathan Banks: I’m fighting on the
feature on the undercard. I am
looking forward to fighting on EPIX. This has been a great energy for me. I’ve been training off the EPIX energy
since I heard about the fight and I’m looking forward to
it.
Vitali
Klitschko: Good morning, good
afternoon; I don’t know what time it is now in the United States. Outside here in Munich it is so cold and
snowing but it is a warm atmosphere. The arena is sold out and everybody is excited to see the fight Saturday
night. Klitschko defends the title
against Chisora and actually it is a pretty warm atmosphere. So many people are traveling from (all
over the world); from United States, from Great Britain, from Russia and
everybody is excited and everybody knows it will be a very interesting
fight.
Q: What’s your motivation for this fight, because it seems clear that you’re
the better fighter? What’s your
motivation for this fight?
Vitali
Klitschko: You know what (it’s
by) the fighter. It’s a
belief. (Please) don’t
underestimate Chisora. He’s young,
very aggressive; he’s very hungry and he wants to be World Champion very
much. I was very impressed when I
saw his last fight against Robert Helenius.
Before their fight everybody would talk about Helenius like he was the
next world champion and yes, of course; I saw the last fight and everybody
(loved) Chisora. Chisora may have
lost the decision, but many experts who saw the fight, saw Chisora dominate the
fight. He beat Helenius, but in
split decision, Helenius won.
After this fight, I (called) to my manager and told him I want to fight
this guy. This will be very good
challenge for me. This will be
really interesting fight for – not just for audience; but for me, because I need
a challenge. And my thoughts, my
opinion; I (can’t) fight a nobody. I need a challenge. I want to fight the strongest challenger
and Chisora is one of them and I’m more than sure the fight Saturday night will
be very, very interesting.
I feel that; I smell that. He deserves my respect from Klitschko. He wants very much to be the world
champion. I am giving him the
chance and let’s see if he can use this chance or not.
Q: Have you changed anything about your training in preparation for this
particular fight, because of how he did against Helenius in his last
fight?
Vitali
Klitschko: Yes, of
course. I use different sparring
partners and because Chisora has a totally different style than Sosnowski and
Sosnowski was pretty fast, and has a different technique and that is (why) I
changed my preparation. But believe
me; I will be in good form. I
understand how important this fight is and I understand it’s very
dangerous. He’s very good fighter
and I don’t want to make a mistake.
Q: I note this in the picture and the press conference between the two of
you. I mean both of you are smiling
and laughing and hugging each other like you were brothers and I notice that in
all your other fights. What’s your
view about all the challengers you face and how do you – are you friends? I mean do you like Chisora? Will that be – will that make it
difficult for you to knock him out? But basically, what do you think about sportsmanship? How do you view your opponents and why
are you so friendly in the press conferences?
Vitali
Klitschko: All I know about
Chisora is his professional career. He has a good chin, and he has good boxing
quality. We make small talk. Chisora was friendly. It’s nothing personal; just
business.
My career is just business, boxing, sports; nothing personal. And that’s why I smile at him.
Q: Vitali, I agree with the last caller; you have been a terrific champion,
so congratulations on that. What do
you think of the career you have had? How would you rate your career, the way it’s gone so
far?
Vitali
Klitschko: You know it’s
difficult to say that now, because my career is not over. It’s – if I make – if I make (last)
fight and (after) I retired, I can explain exactly about my career; I may call
you. But right now, I try to do my
best in my career. This was not easy; sometimes up, sometimes down. But anyway, for right now; what I mean
right now is that all heavyweights need good opponents, good contenders, a good,
a good fight.
And that is why I try to find fighters who have really good skills, who
are very tough. The young guys
don’t build big names, but they have good skills to become a champion. And one of them is Dereck Chisora; he is
tough, young and aggressive, has a lot of very good technique, good chin and
that is why I fight against the strongest ones. It’s what my career is about. It’s always very difficult to talk about
myself. It’s you, as boxing
experts, who know about that (maybe) better and you can be objective; much more
objective than me.
Q: OK. That’s fair enough. So how much longer do you plan on
fighting, Vitali?
Vitali
Klitschko: I had a dream. I have a dream it’s always I had a dream
because without dreams, life is boring. And I have my sport dream and I don’t want to talk about this dream. I am
superstitious and that is why I don’t want to tell you about this dream. And this dream keeps me active in boxing
and motivates me to keep going into the ring. But if you see my last fights, I have
given a good performance, with good results and I knock out all of my
opponents. I stopped everyone and
that is why I am still active in sports and continuing my
career.
Q: I was at your fight against Arreola and I know you dominated him, but in
his last few fights, he’d lost a lot a weight and gotten himself in better
shape. I know he’s the number 1
contender right now in the WBC. Would you like to fight him again?
Vitali
Klitschko: Why not? Arreola is top fighter; it was very
interesting fight in Los Angeles Staples Center and if Arreola can be ready for
this fight, I would be happy to give him second chance.
Q: It seems like you haven’t really had a true challenge since
you fought Lennox
Lewis in 2003. Do you see any true
challenges out there on the heavyweight horizon? Chisora could possibly be a challenge,
but you seem to have just breezed through your competition since then. Do you see anything on the horizon that
excites you in this division?
Vitali
Klitschko: You know (it) is –
it’s very difficult to compare Arreola with Lennox Lewis. Lennox Lewis was a big star; he was big
star. Right now, all the big stars
have retired and Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson are not there, Lennox Lewis is
not there. No big names and that’s
why everyone from the new generation who challenge the Klitschkos gt
stopped. Any moment there can be a
new guy and he can be tough, and he can give us a tough challenge. And one of them is Dereck
Chisora.
Q: Have you seen Seth Mitchell fight?
Vitali
Klitschko: I’m sorry; I
haven’t seen him fight.
Q: Mitchell is a young heavyweight; an American heavyweight who seems to be
up and coming and could provide a challenge. But my question to you is does it make
you feel a little bit sad that you have gone through your brilliant career for
the last almost decade and have not really had a true challenge (and) the
heavyweight division, with the exception of your brother, really has appeared to
be somewhat barren. Does that
sadden you at all?
Vitali
Klitschko: You’re right and
not. For a real challenge, it would have to be somebody who can beat a
Klitschko. But we don’t give anyone a chance inside the ring; we leave no room
for doubt that we are stronger than our opponents. That is why everybody is talking about a
crisis in boxing because no can beat us.
No, it’s not crisis, although somebody told us the name of the crisis is
the Klitschko Brothers, because nobody can beat the Klitschko Brothers.
Everybody wants to see a new name rise up to a new challenge, where in any
moment that someone from a younger generation who has good skills, who is very
motivated and who doesn’t have fear can make a serious charge. And in my personal opinion, Dereck
Chisora is big challenge for me I smell that in this
fight.
This fight will be not easy. This fight will be a real good challenge for me and I will do my best to
beat Dereck Chisora and yes. Every
fighter needs time to build his name by fighting better opponents. That’s how my brother and I did
it.
But anyone has a chance. We
are ready to fight anyone in the heavyweight division and we’re doing that
together (as brothers).
Q: My question for you is not so much about this specific fight, but I know,
and we talked about it the other day, that you’re in your training camp, along
with your brother, Wladimir, because you’re getting ready for your fight this
weekend and he’s getting ready for a fight in very close proximity in two
weeks.
And so since both of you have made it very clear, for obvious reasons,
that you’re not going to fight each other; we all understand that. I wonder, when you’re sitting around
with him and you’re talking and you’re in camp and you’re making conversation,
do you ever compete with him or him with you from the standpoint where you may
say OK, we’re not going to fight each other, but you know what? I’m going to knock out my opponent
quicker than you’re going to knock out your opponent. Or I’m going to perform better against
my guy than you will in your fight? And have, like do you keep score in that sense in – as a – since you’re
not going to actually fight each other
Vitali
Klitschko: It’s very good
question. It’s always a
competition; any sportsman, any fighter has a personal ego, sports ego. And that why the competition between us
as two brothers; we have a competition. Who is better? Right now we
work together; we work together in training camp and so yes. We try to play in training camp who is
better at table tennis; ping-pong. Who is better? We swim – we
swim.
I remember always when we were running, who will finish first? And right now we compete in the swimming
pool and it’s always as (good) now as it was in the beginning of our
career. Who needs less time to
knock an opponent out? It’s a
competition between two brothers. And we have big competitions but to be honest I have developed my skills
by myself. My brother has a big
talent in boxing and in sport.
I don’t want to fight him. I
know my brother very well. He’s
much more talented and right now he’s much younger than me; almost five
years. And if we’re swimming in the
swimming pool, other than a hairy chest, he’s much better than me. Sometimes in ping-pong, I beat him, but
it is more difficult. Just one play where I’m dominate and that is
chess.
But the competition between two brothers – it would be a great fight; one
brother’s fight against another brother’s, but we promised our mom never do that
and I love my brother so much and that why it’s never happened. So I’m sorry for all boxing fans. It’s my personal story and that why I
can’t do that. But anyway, the
competition between the two of us; we do that every day.
Q: And when you talk about the boxing aspect of things, did you every bring
up the subject of you know OK you know I’m going to knock out Chisora faster
than you’re going to knock out Mormeck or you know he says the other
thing?
Vitali
Klitschko: Oh, I forget to
tell you. I totally dominate him by
children. I make three of them, as
Wladimir is almost 35. I dominate him three to zero.
Q: Vitali, I’m just wondering; do you think that Dereck Chisora is a better
fighter than David Haye?
Vitali
Klitschko: Oh, good
question. Do you know what? It’s – right now, I tell you, he has
exactly the same skills of David Haye, but David Haye was coming from
cruiserweight. Dereck Chisora is a
real heavyweight fighter and that why he has a much stronger punch and after the
fight, I can give you a more exact answer. Right now, in my personal opinion; they both probably have the same
(level) of skills.
Q: How do you expect Dereck Chisora to fight you differently than David Haye
fought your brother? In other
words, obviously, people expect him to try more than David Haye did, but what
are your thoughts on that?
Vitali
Klitschko: David Haye didn’t
want to fight. He just kept running
away from my brother. He didn’t
come in to fight. I expect a better
fight from Dereck Chisora. He’s
actually fighter. He wants to go in
and fight and to go the distance. He tries to challenge his opponent and I didn’t see that in the last
fight between David Haye against Wladimir Klitschko. And that’s why they both have totally
different styles. Dereck Chisora is
more aggressive than David Haye.
Q: Do you expect David Haye to agree to fight you after, assuming you win
this fight?
Vitali
Klitschko: David Haye so
unpredictable and we tried to make a deal and I hope the fight comes through,
but right now we are miles apart from making the contract. Right now I don’t want to talk about it;
I am focused totally to – for the Chisora fight and I hope that after Dereck
Chisora, David Haye changes his mind and I can give a chance to David Haye to
fight for world title.
Everyone, every fighter has a dream to fight for world title and I have a
feeling I tell every time to David Haye, please fight me. Please fight for the world title; it’s
the most prestigious title in the world. And then if he doesn’t want to do that, it’s OK. David Haye always tries to find excuses
why fights do not happen. I hope
David Haye one day makes a decision to fight me.
Q: You mentioned earlier that your career’s not over yet. So how many more times to do you plan to
fight this year; in this calendar year?
Vitali
Klitschko: The year’s just
beginning. It’s first fight in this
year, but definitely it will depend of my condition, depend of health and
actually, I can do one or two fights more, if everything goes smoothly. I’ll give it my best; and hope, if
everything is fine, returning to the ring in a couple of
months.
Q: Assuming you know after the Chisora fight, how long are you going to give
David Haye to sign a contract? Is
there a drop-dead deadline or something like that?
Vitali
Klitschko: I will have to wait
to give you an answer for that. Right now, I’m totally focused on Dereck Chisora fight. After the Dereck Chisora fight, I will
give you the answer for your question, but right now I’m not ready to talk about
that.
Q: You’ve only fought once in United States since your comeback in 2000 and
I just want to know if American fans have seen the last of Vitali Klitschko in
the United States or if you do plan to come back over here
again.
Vitali
Klitschko: I’ll be happy to
fight in the United States. My last
fight was at Staples Center, in 2009. I’d be happy to fight in Staples Center,
in Madison Square Garden… Just a couple of months ago I was in the United States
and so many fans asked me exactly the same question.
It’s great to fight in Europe (and Soviet) world. I would be happy to fight in the United
States, but for that to happen we need just one important point; a good American
challenger.
Q: We’re both 40 years old. Do
you think you’ll be around long enough to see a good enough American challenger
to prompt you to come back to the United States? Or do you just think the American fans
will eventually rally around you?
Vitali
Klitschko: Chris Arreola is
actually already number 1 in WBC rating, if we can talk about Chris Arreola
again in Staples Center. Why
not?
Q: People have been asking you about your future opponents. One guy that you talked about in the
past that you really to fight; he hasn’t been around for a while, is Nikolai
Valuev. Have you still got any wish
to fight him at some point, if you could talk him into it?
Vitali
Klitschko: Nikolai Valuev is a
member of Russian parliament right now. I received an official answer from
Nikolai. He’s retired and doesn’t
want to fight anymore. It would be
very interesting fight. It’s very
interesting, the way I have to find sparring partners for the fights and he’s
actually – I am – I’m 6’ 7”, but Nikolai Valuev, 6’ 9”.
Q: Six-eleven, (actually).
Vitali
Klitschko: Six-eleven;
sorry. He’s 6’ 11” and I never
fought against anyone so big and this fight would be interesting for me, for the
audience, especially since Nikolai looks so impressive. But I have bad
news. Nikolai doesn’t want to fight
anymore because he has retired.
Q: Well you could have a fight between the two politicians if you could talk
him into it, so it would be really interesting. You’re involved in politics as
well.
Vitali
Klitschko: You’re right;
you’re right. For that, I would
have to be a member of the Ukrainian parliament. Maybe next year, I will be a member and
after that we can come back to this question with one member of Russian
parliament; one (inaudible) fight against another one. This of course is joke. But anyway, I
have a dream to fight Nikolai, but you know he decided, because of an injury,
because of his hip – a lot of injuries and he decided to retire. And I am full
of respect for him and I wish Nikolai a lot of luck in his political
career.
Vitali
Klitschko: Thank you very much
everybody. Thank you very much for
your questions. Thank you very much
for following the Klitschko Brothers’ career. I wish for everyone who sees the fight
on Saturday night a lot of enjoyment from it. I feel that this fight will be one of
the most interesting of my fight career. I have really good challenger and it will be very good fight and I hope
this will be a real big battle in heavyweight division.
Have a nice day and we see each other Saturday
night.
Travis
Pomposello: EPIX is really looking
forward to kicking off this heavyweight championship trilogy with two EPIX
alumni – defending champion Vitali Klitschko versus Dereck Chisora. And you know like the champ said many
times, we think this is a very interesting and competitive fight and it’ll be a
lot of fun for U.S. fans to see.
*************************************************
The
EPIX Heavyweight Extravaganza kicks off on This
Saturday! February 18, beginning
at 4:30 p.m. ET /
1:30 p.m. PT, with Klitschko vs. Chisroa, live from Olympiahalle in
Munich, Germany. On Saturday, February 25
(4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT), undefeated World Boxing Association (WBA)
champion Alexander Povetkin (23-0,
16 KOs), of Russia, will defend his title against world cruiserweight champion Marco Huck (34-1, 25 KOs), of Berlin, Germany, in the Porsche-Arena in
Stuttgart, Germany. The grand
finale will take place on Saturday, March 3 (Time TBD) in the ESPIRIT
Arena in Düsseldorf, Germany, and will feature unified champion Wladimir Klitschko (56-3, 49 KOs), of
Kyiv, Ukraine, defending his World Boxing Organization (WBO), International
Boxing Federation (IBF) and WBA super heavyweight crowns against two-time world
cruiserweight champion Jean Marc Mormeck (36-4, 22 KOs), of Pantin,
France.
These
six gladiators boast a combined record of 207-12 (161 KOs) – a 94.5% winning
percentage and a 78% victory by knockout ratio.
As
has become the custom, EPIX will once again present the closed-captioned
simulcast of the three world heavyweight championship fights on a jumbotron in
Times Square (Broadway between 44th and 45th Sts.)
About
EPIX
EPIX, a joint venture
between Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA and VIA.B), its Paramount Pictures unit,
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) and Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), is a premium
entertainment service available on television, video-on-demand, online and on
consumer electronic devices. With access to more than 15,000 motion pictures
spanning the vast libraries of its partners and other studios, EPIX provides a powerful entertainment experience with more feature films on demand
and online and more HD movies than any other service. It is the only premium
service providing its entire monthly line-up of new Hollywood hits, classic
feature films, documentaries and original concerts, comedy and sporting events
on all platforms.
EPIX has made the commitment
to deliver the industry’s most expansive online collection of movies, making
more than 3,000 titles available to authenticated subscribers on EpixHD.com and on hundreds of devices including Xbox 360 consoles, Android™
tablets and mobile phones, Roku® players, Samsung® Smart TVs and Blu-ray™
players and more. EPIX is available to over 30 million homes nationwide
through distribution partners including Charter Communications, Cox
Communications, DISH Network, Mediacom Communications, NCTC, Suddenlink
Communications and Verizon FiOS.
For more information
about EPIX, go to http://www.EpixHD.com. Follow EPIX
and EPIX Sports on Twitter, @EpixHD and @EpixSports, respectively, and on
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/EpixHD.
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