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.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here. You can also download No Holds Barred here. If one link does not work, please try another. The show is in MP3 format, so may take some time to download.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", by Ian Carpenter.

Make sure to visit the official boxing forum for No Holds Barred, the MySpace Boxing Forum.

No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

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Bragging Rights Corner, for news and always independent opinion about the sport and business of boxing. Check out their web site at http://www.braggingrightscorner.com/.

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No Holds Barred: Charles Farrell on Marquez-Vazquez, Decline of Boxing and Boxing Writers, Craigslist, and More

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman has a wild and lengthy discussion with our correspondent Charles Farrell about the Rafael Marquez-Israel Vazquez and Yonnhy Perez- Abner Mares fights from Saturday, May 22, the decline of boxing and boxing writing, and much more.

The fourth fight between Rafael Marquez and Israel Vazquez ended in the third round when the referee ruled that the bloodied and blinded Vazquez could not continue. We discuss their historic trilogy of fights, where each fighter can go from here, and why there must not be a fifth fight. We also discuss the majority draw between Yonnhy Perez and Abner Mares, and how this could be the start of a series of fights between these two. We also discuss the obstacles facing fighters at lower weights such as Marquez and Vazquez, whose first fights were at super bantamweight and now at featherweight, and Perez and Mares, who are bantamweights. We also examine the long practice of boxing promoters and television networks of using nationalism and jingoism to promote fights.

Related to these problems are the general decline of boxing in America and the concurrent decline of boxing writing. We discuss this in relation to the offer by the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) to reinstate Eddie, and the history of that dispute. We also analyze in depth whether the BWAA dues of $40 might be better spent answering a personal ad on Craigslist. And we discuss issues like who is better, Vitali Klitschko or Nina Simone, and much, much more.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here. You can also download No Holds Barred here. If one link does not work, please try another. The show is in MP3 format, so may take some time to download.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", by Ian Carpenter.

Make sure to visit the official boxing forum for No Holds Barred, the MySpace Boxing Forum.

No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

BJJMart.com, your premier source for all Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gear, videos, books, and much more.

American Top Team. Whether you're a beginner or a champion, train with the champions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, wrestling, grappling, and mixed martial arts at American Top Team. Check out their web site at http://americantopteam.com/.

Bragging Rights Corner, for news and always independent opinion about the sport and business of boxing. Check out their web site at http://www.braggingrightscorner.com.

FightBeat.com, for news, results, interviews, and free exclusive videos from the worlds of boxing and mixed martial arts.