The Cyber Boxing Zone Newswire


Vitali Klitschko: "We will have a lot of fun on Saturday!": Fabian Weber


Vitali Klitschko: "We will have a lot of fun on Saturday!"

Oberhausen - 6 October 1999. Vitali Klitschko, the reigning WBO heavyweight champion, has a different style than most other athletes worldwide - not only inside the ring. During the final press conference on Monday the Ukrainian presented his surprised challenger Ed Mahone, who turned 27 the same day, a birthday cake.

"But that's the only present I'm going to make you" Vitali Klitschko, 25-0 (25 KOs), said with a grin while handing over his sweet gift. American Ed Mahone, 21-0-2 (21 KOs), will be Klitschko's first challenger to the WBO title that he won in June from Englishman Herbie Hide in London.

"Wladimir's victory over Axel Schulz is a special motivation for Vitali", Fritz Sdunek, the coach of both Klitschko brothers said. "Now Vitali wants to show that he's the boss of the family", Sdunek reports on the friendly rivalry between the two brothers.

Thomas Loeffler, the manager of Mahone, is certain that it will show on Saturday that the decision of Universum Box-Promotion to give his man a title shot was wrong. "I was surprised when I got that call from Germany. Why they want a man as dangerous as Ed as challenger? They are pretty courageous", Loeffler said and predicted that Klitschko will be permanently on the run from the attacking Mahone. "He's really dangerous, a daredevil", Klitschko's coach Sdunek confirmed, who always studies the opponents of his men on video.

"We will have a lot of fun on Saturday", Vitali Klitschko commented in his usual calm manner. "I said that a couple of times before: Only knockout victories are real victories." As usual the 27-year-old German based didn't leave anything to chance when preparing for his first world title defense. During the past two months Vitali completed 74 rounds of sparring against four different sparring partners: Sedrick Fields (Atlanta), Fernelly Feliz (New York), Willie Williams (Atlanta) and Franco Wanyama (Uganda). The excellent work of Fields and Wanyama already contributed to Klitschko's victory over Hide.

Both Klitschko and Mahone, as well as WBO lightweight world champion Artur Grigorian and his American challenger Michael Clark showed up at a final public workout session today in Centro Oberhausen in front of more than 2,000 German fans. All four appeared to be in excellent shape. An uncomfortable situation arose, when Ed Mahoe refused to accept a "high five" handshake inside the ring offered by Klitschko.

Weigh In: Friday, 8 October, 17:00, Coca Cola Oase, Centro Oberhausen

You can purchase photos of Vitali Klitschko during training and action photos of his fight against Mahone from ringside photographer Susanna Rescio. More details at http://www.boxingnews.de/photos.htm.

Fabian WeberE-Mail: fabian.weber@boxingnews.de

German Boxing News
http://www.boxingnews.de

Upcoming Fights

Current Champions

Boxing Journal

On-line Encyclopedia

News

Main Page

[Return to Top]