Why The Klitschkos Should Not Fight

The moribund heavyweight division could be reignited ?with a master class in gentlemen jabbing,? argues Shaun Assael in a recent ESPN the Magazine article in which he takes the position that heavyweight champion brothers Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko should forsake their previous vows to never fight and go all Civil War for heavyweight supremacy.


The great Axl Rose once sang, ?I don?t need your Civil War.? As usual, Axl and I agree.

If gentlemanly jabbing could truly revive the stagnant division and regain public interest, then surely Wladimir would have amassed a Justin Bieber-size following after enacting the phrase for 36 excruciating minutes against Sultan Ibragimov at Madison Square Garden in 2008, a performance which strongly influenced his becoming persona non grata on United States television until this summer.

I don?t believe the Klitschko brothers should fight, but whether or not I think it would be ?ghoulish? or ?gruesome,? the objections to the fight that Assael primarily focuses on, is almost irrelevant given the numerous other reasons for not wanting to see the Battle of the Champion Brothers (I don?t want it to sound too much like I?m bashing on Assael or his article; he takes a pretty difficult position and argues it persuasively and eloquently, I just don?t agree with his position).

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