Vitali Klitschko still looking for a big fight

By Brett Okamoto

Tuesday, May 25, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.

Polish-born heavyweight Albert Sosnowski has promised to do something Saturday he says no fighter in the world was able to do in 2009 — enter the ring against Vitali Klitschko expecting to win.

During a media teleconference Monday, Sosnowski (45-2-1, 27 KO) and his manager Krzysztof Zbarski gave little credit to the three boxers that most recently challenged Klitschko for his WBC heavyweight title.

Sosnowski swore to deliver a better performance than each of them when he faces Klitschko this weekend at Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

"I don't want to lose this fight in the locker room," Sosnowski said. "I'm going into the ring to win this fight. Those guys lost the fight before they even stepped in. I will not do this."

Klitschko (39-2, 37 KO), whose younger brother Wladimir holds the WBO and IBF heavyweight titles, walked straight through his opposition in 2009.

After defeating Juan Carlos Gomez by a ninth-round TKO in March, Klitschko went on to stop the then-undefeated Chris Arreola in September before finishing off the year with a lopsided decision win over a defensive-minded Kevin Johnson in December.

According to Sosnowski's camp, it's become obvious that the Klitschkos' dominance of the division has got some heavyweights believing that surviving a fight with them is about as good as winning one.

"The latest opponents of both brothers did not want to win their fights," Zbarski said. "Wladimir's fight with (Eddie) Chambers — why did he even come to the ring? He came to survive. What about Kevin Johnson? How many punches did he throw?

"There will be no more of that. We're going to fight and we're going to try to win. Albert will be throwing punches, not trying to survive 12 rounds."

The recent inability to find quality fights has not been overlooked by Klitschko.

The Ukraine native repeatedly said Monday he's willing to fight anyone, but didn't seem to have any names in mind.

Although he had nothing but respect to offer towards Sosnowski, Klitschko likely never would have accepted the fight if he had been able to finalize a deal with former heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev earlier this year.

With both Klitschko brothers dominating their opposition but unwilling to fight one another, the historically popular division quickly is being forgotten by the American public. Saturday's championship fight pay-per-view wasn't picked up by an American network.

"I'm ready to fight anyone, who is left?" Klitschko said. "Wladimir is knocking out the best American fighters. I just fought Kevin Johnson. Who else? Right now that's one problem — there's no big name.

"I hope that big names come up and I'm still fighting. I think this year we'll see new names that will interest the public."

The one name that does seem to legitimately excite Klitschko, as well as the boxing community, is David Haye.

The current WBA heavyweight champion got under the skin of both Klitschko brothers last June when he wore a T-shirt depicting him holding their decapitated heads to a press conference in Germany.

Klitschko on Monday accused Haye of ducking both he and his brother and expressed a desire to "shut the mouth" of the British fighter.

"I want to fight David Haye very much and my brother wants to fight him also," Klitschko said. "He had a fight against Wladimir and two weeks before the fight he explained about some injury that nobody believes in. Then we were ready to sign the contract to fight Haye and he jumped also and tried to come up with an excuse.

"David Haye understands that a fight against either of the Klitschko brothers would be the end of his career."

While Polish fighter Tomasz Adamek also represents a somewhat intriguing fight, it's clear that until a fight between Haye and one of the Klitschko's is made, the heavyweight division in boxing will remain mostly overlooked.

Brett Okamoto can be reached at 948-7817 or [email protected].