By Alan Conceicao

The world of sports loves a dominant champion. Always has, always will. Dominant champions are the kind of thing that make for quick editorial pieces in print and highlight packages on Sportscenter. Can’t think of something to cover? Shit, Tiger Woods is doing something right now, right? Does King James like his french fries waffle cut or does he prefer the more traditional shoestring? Barring that, the next best thing are personalities. You don’t necessarily have to be great or even that good at what you do to be one of those. Anna Kournikova made shitloads and never won a tournament. As an American, you’ve probably seen plenty of Danica Patrick, but wouldn’t be able to pick Kimi Räikkönen out of a lineup (even if the rest of the world can). Fuck, you can’t even pronounce the guy’s name.

That point brings us to a pair of men competing in combat sports for whom better days have passed. The heavyweight division of boxing and of kickboxing was, at least until this decade, unquestionably the pinnacle of both sports. Winning titles was fine, but to be known worldwide, nothing did the job better than trying to insert yourself into the lineage of John L. Sullivan or Jack Dempsey. Barring that, kickboxing had a renaissance overseas timed along with the resurgence of heavyweight boxing in the early 1990s. K-1’s Grand Prix became the most prestigious title and the tournament everyone wanted to win. Names like Andy Hug, Peter Aerts, and Ernesto Hoost became legendary among MMA fans and kickboxing afficiandos alike.

And now, well, the honeymoon is over for both. But that doesn’t mean there’s not a #1 in each world. The problem is that virtually no one in America cares.

WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO:

Klitschko has now been on three different occasions the saviour of heavyweight boxing. As 1996 gold medalist in Atlanta in the super heavyweight division, Klitschko was, like his brother, Oleg Maskaev, and a number of other prospects from the recently fractured USSR on his way to take the title to the Eastern Bloc. Then he gassed out against glorified punching bag Ross Purrity and lost. Wladimir was able to build himself up once more however, and with his brother’s defeat at the hands of Chris Byrd, was able to replace him in the eyes of HBO as their heavyweight for the future. And then he lost again, this time to semi-retired Corrie Sanders. He followed that with another loss to Lamon Brewster, and by this time, the myth of Klitschko being able to topple an aging Lennox Lewis was in the garbage.

Klitschko bided his time however, and soon returned to prominence and another HBO contract. Solid and often careful matchmaking has brought him half of the fractured world heavyweight crown, and he is consider indisputably the top heavyweight boxer on the planet. However, the American crowds never appeared for Klitschko like the networks hoped.

His offense first style was stunted to a more cautious but better fitted style by master trainer Emanuel Steward, and in his last three bouts, he has shown a total unwillingness to throw the right hand. The title unification bout at MSG in February was most damning, however. Power shots were few and far between and the fight was panned by critics and the fans in attendance. The style will win him fights, but it is at the cost of ever being accepted as a great fighter by the American fans. Its likely to even hurt his standing with time overseas in Germany, his spiritual promotional home.

SEMMY SCHILT

A freak of nature with a similar conceptual background in karate as the late, great Andy Hug, Schilt is nowhere near as loved by Japanese fans. His lack of popularity has the show’s ratings declining (albiet not necessarily at a precipitous rate) and has had it shift venues from long time home Tokyo Dome to the much smaller Yokohama Arena. However, one thing cannot be denied, and that is Schilt is absolutely, positively, the best heavyweight kickboxer in the world.

Unfortunately, like Klitschko, his safety first style has been a part of the decline also. With less than a 40% KO ratio, he has the lowest such ratio among K-1 World Grand Prix Champions. He also is performing, much like Klitschko, against holdovers from the previous era. Schilt is still contending chiefly with men approaching or over 40 years of age like Aerts, Hoost, and Sefo. Newer fighters simply haven’t developed, and K-1’s continued push for freakshows does nothing to encourage their growth. As a result, Schilt is left beating up on the hero’s of days gone by and Koreans with acromeglia. Throttling an agint Jerome Lebanner with his grotesquely malformed nose does nothing to further him or K-1’s heavyweight division.

If there’s any defense to the lack of interest in Schilt, its that K-1 never had a significant following beyond a small cult one of Japanese ex-pats and bored white men who would buy copies of commercial VHS when they’d hit stores in Chinatown. But even among them, K-1 has fallen completely off the radar. ESPN hasn’t even bothered to update its limited K-1 programming in the better part of 5-6 years.

THE UNSPOKEN TRUTH

Now, while neither man really has great competition to be judged against, and while they aren’t that entertaining, those things in and of themselves don’t necessarily prevent one from being considered great within their sport. Great pitchers don’t necessarily thrill people by negating offense by forcing batters into hitting ground balls to short, after all. What really kills both men is that they do all of this while essentially by being pretty damn big and intimidating in appearance. Klitschko at 6’5’’, 240lbs is cut up like Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV, and yet he’s recently fought with the same intensity as John Ruiz. Schilt borders on 7’ in height, and yet he’s never been able to turn his height into significant power in the context of kickboxing for any prolongued period of time. Rather, its become a tool he uses to coast to easy points victories. Easy points victories look good on the score sheet but not with fans.

There are naturally differences too though, and I would be doing a poor job not to at least remind you of them. Schilt is in a position every year on multiple occasions in which he must fight the top heavyweights in the world, sometimes in a single night. Wladimir Klitschko is more interested in a 2-3 fight a year pace, usually whatever lowest level guy HBO will approve making their way in. Oh, and Klitschko doesn’t have any financial options to transition to other sports, whereas He Who Can Be Taken Down All The Time seems, at least for the time being, to be making his way back to the sport of 4 ounce gloves and double leg takedowns.

But those are almost minor to the more major point. Dominance can be a good thing. MMA certainly didn’t hurt too much because of Matt Hughes and Chuck Liddell in the US. But dominance can be the worst thing imaginable when you’ve got someone so good, no one can not only beat him, but make him worth watching. Here’s to hoping that HBO finds someone better than half blind heavyweights and obese cruiserweights to put in with Wladimir over the coming years, and that Schilt can finally find a match worth making back in the sport that brought him to prominence over a decade ago.