Kevin Garside: Time is running out for the public to learn to love Wladimir Klitschko

No heavyweight in the history of boxing has contested more world title fights than Wladimir Klitschko (27). His straightforward victory over Bryant Jennings at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night was his 18th title defence on the spin. Only two have recorded more consecutive defences, Larry Holmes (20) and Joe Louis, who stands alone on 25.

These are epic numbers and in Holmes and Louis attach to fighters who occupy a different spot in the imagination of fight fans. Despite possessing a right hand that would anaesthetise an elephant and a jackhammer jab, Klitschko remains unloved. His crime is to keep trouble at arm’s length and get the job done with robotic efficiency.

This was Klitschko’s first appearance in the United States for seven years. His previous engagement was in the same boxing cathedral against Sultan Ibragimov, and, in boxing parlance, he stank the place out. A new optimism is flooding the fight game. Next weekend’s pageant in Las Vegas between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao has returned boxing to the forefront of the sporting canon.

This was Klitschko’s opportunity to reconnect with an audience receptive to the idea of the boxing superhero in a place where legends were made. Regrettably, Jennings had neither the pedigree nor the experience to tempt the 6ft 7in, 17st defensive craftsman into a fight. It is not Klitschko’s fault that those against him are incapable of cracking the Kiev nut, yet somehow he carries the can for killing the spectacle.

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There was something of this in the career of Holmes, who was unfortunate to emerge at the end of the golden age of heavyweight boxing, ruling the division in the wake of Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and George Foreman. His rapier jab pulverised Ali into brutal submission in a fight that many believed triggered the onset of Parkinson’s in the fading champion. Holmes carried with him a negative tow thereafter, as if he were responsible for the lack of lustre in the post-Ali era.

His standing in the hall of fame eventually came to be seen for the considerable career it was. Maybe Klitschko’s reputation will be hauled out of the bin when his days are done, and suitably polished. He came among us as one half of a family pincer movement that has smothered the scene for the best part of 15 years. Brother Vitali is now otherwise engaged in a conflict of greater meaning as the mayor of Kiev, but the 39-year-old Wladimir reigns on, just too big and too good for any.

His third and last defeat came a decade ago to Lamon Brewster, a shock knockout against the run of play that echoed the explosive left hand thrown by Corrie Sanders a year earlier, which accounted for his second professional loss. His first defeat was also unexpected, against a journeyman slugger, Ross Puritty, who had lost 13 times before stepping into the Kiev ring, the first time Klitschko had defended his WBO title in front of his own people.

Klitschko utterly dominated before running out of gas dramatically in the 11th, forcing his trainer to throw in the towel when Puritty caught him. Smart move. Too many young fighters have fought on when put beyond use. Klitschko might just owe his longevity to Fritz Sdunek, who knew instantly the lights were out.

Sanders could make a mess out of anybody if he hit the spot, and Brewster got lucky at the precise moment Klitschko lost concentration, climbing off the deck in the fourth to land with a big left in the fifth. Goodnight Klitschko. Punches like that have a way of stifling ambition. Klitschko became ever more mechanical and risk-averse after the Brewster collapse, much like Lennox Lewis following the stunning knockout loss to Oliver McCall.

Klitschko faces a mandatory defence next against our own Tyson Fury, who might just be the man to pierce the armour. Klitschko might thank him for it. He needs a rival to draw him out of himself so that he might show us he can really fight. In the wings, waiting for the winner, is Deontay Wilder, the new beau of the American heavyweight scene, who owns the WBC belt and loves a tear-up.

The Fury date will be in London or Germany, depending on which host has the deepest pockets, and then, should Klitschko prevail, he will be looking to varnish his career, with Vegas a valedictory possibility against Wilder. At least that is how it plays out in the dream sequence. If we don’t love him after that we never will.