With Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko in possession of three of the four world heavyweight title belts, this might be the best of times for the Ukrainian brothers but it has also been condemned as the worst of times for the heavyweight division.

Critics regard the current crop of heavyweights, dominated by boxers from the former Soviet Union, as an unremarkable bunch, but Wladimir Klitschko dismisses the theory and on June 20 continues his quest to try and win over the doubters.

Klitschko, from Ukraine but who is based in Germany, defends his International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Organisation (WBO) titles against Ruslan Chagaev in front of a sell-out 60,000 crowd at the FC Schalke football stadium in Gelsenkirchen, Germany after Briton David Haye pulled out of facing the champion due to a back injury.

As substitute opponents go, there was not a better one than Chagaev available other than Nicolai Valuev, the Russian whom Chagaev was scheduled to fight for the only world title not in Klitschko hands last month, before that bout was also cancelled.

But Klitschko-Chagaev is a fight that has not captured the imagination of American broadcaster HBO, which has turned down the option to televise the fight live despite showing several of Klitschko's recent fights and which was supposed to screen Klitschko-Haye, before it was cancelled.

If another American broadcaster cannot be persuaded to show Klitschko-Chagaev, it will not help Wladimir in his argument that today's heavyweight division is exciting.

Winning over the American audience is something Wladimir and elder brother Vitali, the World Boxing Council (WBC) champion, are still fighting to achieve despite Wladimir reigning as champion since 2006.

"It's funny to hear the Americans say the heavyweight division is dead because in Europe the feeling is different," said Klitschko at his training base at the foothills of the Austrian Alps.

"The criticism of the heavyweight division is there but it's going to change some day.

"There are 300 million living in the Russia region and they are saying there 'Now we have excitement in the heavyweight division'. It depends what section of the region of the world you are living in.

"Forty-six opponents didn't make the distance out of 55 against me, so is that a boring record? I believe that my timing is getting better and in his thirties a heavyweight fighter is getting stronger."

Klitschko, 34, might claim to be unconcerned about his legacy, but he has been desperate to win over America since a conversation with Max Schmeling, the German heavyweight who was world champion between 1930 and 1932 and later knocked out the great Joe Louis in New York in 1936.

"Max Schmeling told me and my brother, 'If you want to be world champions you have to fight in the USA. That's the way I did and the way you have to do it'," said Klitschko.

"We said to our promoter at the time you have to do it like that and since 1998 we have been doing that. Max Schmeling was right. As the champion, you have to be able to fight worldwide."

Emanuel Steward, the American trainer who guided Briton Lennox Lewis to the undisputed world heavyweight title and who is now in the corner of Klitschko, believes the Ukrainian can help his cause to endear himself to American fans by stopping Chagaev in style.

"American boxing fans are used to America controlling the heavyweight division but Lennox Lewis changed that," said Steward, who has spent a month with Klitschko at their training base in Going, a small Austrian village.

"At the end of his career, they finally accepted Lennox. But the American crowd have still not accepted that the European heavyweights are controlling the heavyweight division now.

"Wladimir has not had that devastating effect in America, yet. All Wladimir has to do is have a devastating knockout and beat the likes of Cris Arreola and Alexander Povetkin, then America will grab him."

Undefeated Uzbek Chagaev is the World Boxing Association (WBA) champion-in-recess and had been due to fight Valuev in Finland for the WBA title on May 30, only for the fight to be called off after Chagaev tested positive for hepatitis B on the eve of the clash.

(AFP via China Daily June 17, 2009)