Klitschko's up to their old tricks again?

It appears that the Klitschko’s are not keeping up to their perceived reputation of clear-cut and transparent as talks for both Wladimir & Vitali’s up-coming title defences' stall.

The younger of the two, Wladimir, had been set to face Englishman Dereck Chisora on December 11 in Mannheim, Germany only for him to pull out as a result of an abdominal muscle tear. Questions, however, continue to linger over the existence of this injury.

Originally Wlad’s representative Shelly Finkel described it as a back injury. Nevertheless back injury or abdominal tear either injury surely would keep an athlete away from the golf course for many weeks, you would think. Apparently not, 11 days after his supposed injury severe enough to keep him from making his title defence he was pictured on the golf course.

Klitschko was questioned about his golfing endeavours that weekend by German newspaper Bild, claiming: “That was no real golf, I can’t even think about that.” He went onto add, “I just held the club of a short time for a TV-documentary about my life.” The pictures of Wladimir on Florida’s Palm Beach Resort and Spa seem to suggest otherwise.

Wladimir’s golfing stunt has been added to by the news that Vitali, the elder of the two brothers, had been photographed in the company of Ramzan Kadyov. Vitali appears to make a habit of indulging in the company or Mr Kadyov, branded as a ‘sadistic Muslim dictator’ by some, as the two were seen together in the Chechnyan’s native country.

I think it is fair to say that K-2, the Klitschko’s promotional company will be pushing hard in order to make their respective fights happen in an attempt to gloss over this PR double-bogey. Should a fight with David Haye be made for Wlad all will be forgiven.

Now to the boxing and negotiations for both of the brother’s prospective fights, negotiations are ongoing. Wladimir wants to fight WBA king David Haye whereas Vitali has a mandatory defence to make against Odlanier Solis.

People continue to question who persists in stalling negotiations between Haye and the brothers. Solis has shed light upon this claiming that: “The Klitschkos’ arrogance really pisses me off”.

“My promoter informed me about every step in the negotiations and it looks to me like Vitali is trying to take advantage of me. I will make him pay for that. This is not about money – it’s about respect. .”

Solis, the 2004 Olympic gold medallist defected from his native Cuba in December 2006 during training in Venezuela for the Pan-America Games. After escaping to Colombia, he arrived in Miami where he now resides.

“All I can say is that now I understand why the fight between David Haye and either Klitschko hasn’t happened so far. Until now I thought Haye was afraid. But if the Klitschkos are always as arrogant as they present themselves in our negotiations, I have to say that I understand Haye for not signing a contract. “

Now it appears that Wladimir is running Haye through the mill in their own negotiations. TV money is no longer a problem; Haye has agreed to split all revenues from the fight evenly even though he brings in more cash.

However the IBF, IBO and WBO champion now wants a German doctor in his corner; demanding that his name goes first on all advertising; and that Haye enters the ring first as he only holds the WBA title.

This news somewhat contradicts the views of Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer who on Monday suggested that the only sticking point was finding a date in the congested European football calendar that could accommodate the television networks.

With all these new revelations, Wladimir’s feigning of an abdominal/back injury, Vitali’s association with a Muslim dictator, the stagnation of talks with the Solis camp and K-2 up to their old tricks in the negotiations with Hayemaker promotions it begs a question. Are the Klitschko’s the mild mannered, gentlemen of heavyweight boxing that they would like us to believe?

Adam Booth makes the point in his discussion with Bernd Boente. Klitschko’s promoter, that perhaps their negotiations should be done in public so transparency is achieve and the fans who clearly want to see this fight happen get what they want.

I for one believe that boxing is suffering as a result of prolonged and difficult negotiations stopping the mega-fights from happening, and it appears to be the fault of the Klitschko’s in this instance. Such ‘problem’ negotiations between Top Rank & Golden Boy have already seen a prospective Manny Pacquiao Floyd Mayweather remain a dream for boxing fans but can the heavyweight division afford a David Haye Klitschko bout not to happen?

If it doesn’t come to fruition the heavyweight division, in my belief, will continue to die the death it has been doing since the retirement of the last heavyweight king Lennox Lewis.