The Neutral Corner

It's time for professional boxing to consider a super heavyweight division. And it's also time for Wladimir Klitschko to consider chess, or some other cerebral endeavor.

The first issue. When Klitschko fought Sultan Ibragimov Saturday night at Madison Square Garden it looked like a heavyweight against a middleweight. Klitschko weighed 238 to Ibragimov's 219. Under any other circumstance, such a matchup would defy all logic, rules and regulations. In amateur boxing, you are a heavyweight up to 201 pounds. Anything over is a super heavyweight. The pro game need not follow the same weight standards, but it's certainly time for a change in the weight range that heavyweights fight.

Now, to the more pressing issue. Klitschko retained his IBF title and captured Ibragimov's WBO belt with a 119-110, 117-111, 118-110 decision. This was one of the worst heavyweight title fights in history. And it had nothing to do with Sultan. The guy tried.

For some reason, Klitschko fought 12 rounds like a man afraid of being hit. He darted in and out, popping his jab like a skittish lightweight hoping not to get nailed. He rarely threw his lethal right hand. Although having a 19-pound weight advantage, five-inch height advantage and a considerable reach advantage, he was almost passive. Not exactly what you expect from the heavyweight champion of the world.

He outjabbed a guy against whom he had tremendous physical advantages. So what.

On paper, this was USC against a high school football team. It was the Yankes against a bar-league softball team. That's no knock against Ibragimov.

Sultan has a working-class, every-man appeal to fight fans, looking sort of like a guy who just walked off a construction site. He is, however, a talented fighter. He captured a silver medal at the 2000 Olympics and has gone unbeaten (until tonight) as a pro. And while he is an fighter, how could he have been considered a real threat to Klitschko? For all his ability, Ibragimov has failed to knock out the aged Evander Holyfield and the ordinary Ray Austin.

In comparison, Klitschko is a well-muscled adonis. Not only did he win the gold medal at the 1996 Olympics, he was named the outstanding fighter of the tournament. Some of his pro knockouts have been picturesque. So why?

Why was Klitschko fighting like Sultan was the second coming of George Foreman and Sonny Liston combined? Klitschko refused to take chances, he was content to play it safe. Arturo Gatti has thrown more right hands in a single round -- when his right hand was broken no less -- than Klitschko threw over 12 rounds.

Wladimir is a thinking man's fighter. At MSG, he fought as if this was a chess match. Perhaps that's a game more suitable to his personality. -- CASSIDY