WLADIMIR'S SECOND CHANCE

Wladimir Klitschko's moment will not arrive on April 22, but if it is ever to come he must show up that night and shine. For him, there is no other option.

April 14, 2006 - by Ron Borges

When the former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion enters the ring in Mannheim, Germany that night to face International Boxing Federation champion Chris Byrd it will have been three years and 45 days since he was last viewed as the future of heavyweight boxing. Back then he was a 27-year-old, 6-foot-7 giant of a man with punching power, athleticism, intelligence and ownership of the WBO title. He was, many believed, the Great Hope of the sport, a man who could bring both honor and a fearsome presence back to the most important weight division in boxing.

Then he was stunned by a journeyman named Corrie Sanders, destroyed in two rounds by a 38-year-old fighter who'd spent the previous year studying to become a golf pro in South Africa. A year later, after only briefly being on the comeback trail, he was again left face down on the floor, this time in five rounds by his lightly regarded WBO successor, Lamon Brewster, in a fight that seemed to end Klitschko's hopes of ever becoming what the world once thought, or at least hoped, he might be.

But boxing is the sport of redemption and resurrection and these days the heavyweight division is sadly in need of it. Because the division is barren of anyone resembling a star, either from the recent past or the impending future, it remains a place of opportunity for the right man. Once many people thought that man was Klitschko and based on that as much as anything else he's back for another try against a fading, 35-year-old champion who is five inches shorter, 30 pounds lighter and has half as many knockouts as Klitschko. Opportunity is knocking but will Wladimir Klitschko answer?

That is the great intrigue of this fight. That and the fact that such is the state of the heavyweight division that Klitschko's trainer, Emanuel Steward, insists probably correctly that, "Chris is the best and the most difficult of all the (heavyweight) champions.''

With the fractured title now clearly in transition (three of the four recognized titles have changed hands in the last year), there is an opportunity for someone and Klitschko still looks from the outside like the man best equipped to seize it. Yet for that to happen he must first dethrone Byrd, who he beat soundly five years ago in Germany when he was on the rise, and then must lose little time moving on to clean up what has become a division ruled by former Russians like himself, World Boxing Association champion Nikolay Valuev and newly crowned WBO titleholder Sergei Liakhovich.

Because the heavyweight division is a barren landscape at the moment, no single victory can propel Klitschko to the heights once predicted for him. There is no Mike Tyson, no Evander Holyfield, no Lennox Lewis, no Riddick Bowe, no single opponent from whom he could grasp all the glory in one concussive night's work. To get that, Klitschko must first find a way to handle Byrd and then begin collecting belts as if he were readying himself to open a men's store.

Yet while it will take several more nights in addition to April 22 to become the ruling force in heavyweight boxing, he can lose it all probably for the last time with just one loss on that same date. After those stunning defeats in 2003 and 2004 and then being knocked down three times by Samuel Peter in a fight in which Klitschko got off the deck to win last year, not only is his chin suspect but now so is he. Defeat for a man in such a predicament is not an option.

The Peter fight was supposed to establish one of them as the heir to the undisputed title held last by Lewis. But both men failed to do enough on that night. Although Peter dropped Klitschko three times he didn't seem to land three other punches, and while Klitschko survived those three knockdowns the feeling was Peter's ineptness and poor conditioning had as much to do with that as his own heart and skills did.

As Byrd himself said of Klitschko after their showdown was announced, "Since the last time we fought he's been up and down, up and down...literally. I want to test his heart. I can take it.''

The implication was that perhaps Klitschko could not, although he had no trouble taking what Byrd had to give the last time they fought. That night he badly beat up Byrd, who had never before and never since has taken such a drubbing. After it was over, Byrd complained about his eyes swelling so badly in impaired his vision, claiming it was a result of a foreign substance having been rubbed onto Klitschko's gloves.

To that charge, the gentlemanly Klitschko now says, "Chris Byrd's eyesight was affected by the fists inside my gloves.''

If Klitschko (45-3, 40 KO) can muster another such effort he would immediately soar once again to the top of the heavyweight list despite his sometimes challenged chin because that throne room remains vacant and the bet all along has been that he was superior to the field and one day would occupy it and so even in his diminished state he has the power of past expectations working for him.

Steward once tried to claim he was the most talented heavyweight in the world in fact and perhaps he is, but after turning 30 earlier this month his resume does not yet support that, which is why he can ill afford another misstep. Thus April 22 is a classic crossroads fight for Klitschko.

If he loses to a 35-year-old champion half his size who has fought only four times in the past three years and looked good in very few of the rounds in those fights, the road back to a third title shot would begin at the Alps and go uphill from there.

If he can defeat Byrd in some way and lay claim to a quarter of the world title he would at least be in line to begin the long march toward unification. But if he can look spectacular, either by dominating the elusive Byrd (39-2-1, 20 KO) or by stopping him, Klitschko would be in position to do more than simply challenge the other champions. He'd be in position to dictate terms. In a brutal endeavor like boxing, that is an edge of some consequence and Klitschko seems to understand that.

"I'll do my best to make it a convincing victory,'' Klitschko said recently. "After this fight we'll know who's a true champion.''

Klitschko is quite right about that, at least to some degree. We will not know yet who THE true champion is, but we'll at least have an idea if Wladimir Klitschko is ever going to get into that conversation again.

For him the road ahead is clear and the task easily defined. He must defeat Chris Byrd as handily as possible. A loss at this stage of his career would mean a loss of his last chance to become what he once seemed so assured of being. But even victory is not enough. Not any more. Not, at least, to cement a place atop the heavyweight division. Wladimir Klitschko has lost too often under devastating conditions, and looked too suspect against Peter's punching power, for that.

So if he wins he must continue on toward unifying one or more of the belts, perhaps taking on one of the other Russians while World Boxing Council champion Hasim Rahman settles his differences with another former Russian, Oleg Maskaev. Conceivably, by year's end the world could have four heavyweight champions who honed their skills back when Russia was a towering Communist bloc country because Maskaev has already knocked Rahman cold (not to mention out of the ring) a few years back before the world was paying much attention to either one of them and is well capable of doing it again.

If that happens, if the Russians are indeed not only coming but finally here in the heavyweight division, Wladimir Klitschko will be in the position his handlers always predicted he would be. He'll be in position to rule the world of heavyweight boxing.

This is his time. It begins April 22 in Mannheim, Germany. Only he will decide if it ends there, too.