No Holds Barred: Vitali Klitschko-Albert Sosnowski, Biggest Fight in the World This Coming Weekend

(Photo: Klitschko Management Group)

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman discuses why the fight between WBC world heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko and European champion Albert Sosnowski will be the biggest fight in the world of the coming weekend.

The Klitschko-Sosnowski fight will take place Saturday, May 29, in the 61,000-seat Veltins Arena, a football (soccer) stadium in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. It will be televised live in Germany and elsewhere in Europe on RTL, for free. Vitali Klitschko's previous fight on RTL, a 12-round decision over American Kevin Johnson on December 12, 2009, peaked at over 12 million viewers and was the second-highest sports broadcast in 2009 in Germany. The Klitschko-Sosnowski fight will also be shown live on pay-per-view in the U.S. and Canada.

While this fight will be big business around the world, however, it does not promise to be a competitive fight. Besides being the WBC heavyweight champion, Vitali Klitschko (39-2, 37 KOs) was ahead on the scorecards in his only losses, when his shoulder went out in 2000 against Chris Byrd and when the fight was stopped on cuts against Lennox Lewis in 2003 in Lewis's last professional fight. Since Vitali Klitschko's return in 2008 following an almost four-year layoff due to injuries, none of his four opponents has been able to get him in trouble even once in their fights.

Albert Sosnowski (45-2-1, 27 KOs), on the other hand, has won only two of his last four fights, with one loss and one draw. That loss was on August 6, 2008, in Brooklyn, New York, to late replacement Zuri Lawrence, a journeyman who has no knockouts. Sosnowski was also rocked by the inconsistent Danny Williams in their fight on November 8, 2008, before Sosnowski stopped Williams in the eighth round. Sosnowski did win the vacant European title with a decision on December 18, 2009, against the aging Paolo Vidoz, but he has never fought anyone remotely on the level of Vitali Klitschko.

We got comments on this fight from both Vitali Klitschko and Albert Sosnowski on a media conference call this week. Both Klitschko and Sosnowski expect a competitive and interesting fight. We shall see.

We also discuss why Vitali Klitschko and his younger brother, IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, are so popular in Europe but not in the U.S., where the major networks do not televise all their fights anymore. And we note the co-feature on this card where two American heavyweights, NABF champ Johnathon Banks and Jason Gavern, fight in Germany.

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