Klitschko fears the Reyesman’

Glove dispute puts IBF fight in jeopardy

Tense weigh-in at Mannheim.
Paleface European, Wladimir Klitschko

Heavies today weigh more . .
and wear 'em longer. Rainman Ray Austin.

 

MANNHEIM, Germany—A glove dispute has placed the International Boxing Federation heavyweight championship at the SAP Arena in Mannheim, Germany, in jeopardy. IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko is slated to defend against No. 1-ranked mandatory challenger, Ray “The Rainman” Austin. on Sunday afternoon (EST Australia).

“This whole fight was to be based on fair play and complete impartiality,” Austin’s promoter Don King said. “When negotiations began, I made it clear that there should be NO officials from either the United States or Europe. They accepted my call that officials should be drawn from neutral lands, and appointed by the IBF.

“What happened today shows I have not been dealt with in good faith.”

When the contract for the match was being finalized in January, defending champion Klitschko said he preferred Grant gloves and the challenger Austin said his preference was to use Reyes gloves.

To reach signing of the contract, the parties agreed team Klitschko and team Austin would “mutually agree” upon the gloves that Austin would use.

Team Klitschko never brought up the glove issue again until the rules meeting, after the weigh in. Here they announced for the first time that they had selected a different local commission to oversee this fight - rather than the local commission they chose on April 22, 2006 at the same Arena when Klitschko, as the challenger, was permitted to use the gloves of his choice. In these gloves he duly dethroned then-IBF champion, Chris Byrd.

The Americans learned for the first time after weigh-in that the new commission will not allow Austin to wear the gloves of his choice, circumventing the “to be agreed on” clause that had been added to the contract.

“The German/Ukraine camp has stomped on the over arching concept of impartiality and fair play that we started out with,” said the Rainman’s guardian Don..

“They have selectively and conveniently employed dictatorship,” King said. “I am now playing a shell game where I have no chance to win.”

King offered a coin toss to solve the dispute: If Austin won the toss he could use Reyes gloves and if Klitschko were to win the toss, Austin would have to use Grant gloves. Team Klitschko rejected King’s offer.

“For some reason, the Klitschko camp is afraid of Austin using Reyes gloves, and I don’t know why,” King said. “What is Wladimir Klitschko so afraid of that he can’t agree to a coin toss to get us past this?

“Does he really think he’s going to lose the fight if Ray Austin wears a different type of glove, just like Klischko did when he challenged Chris Byrd for the title last year?

Klitschko (47-3-0, 42 KOs) weighed in at 246 ½ pounds and Austin (24-3-4, 16 KOs) weighed in at 247 pounds. ALAN HOPPER.

MIKE C RYAN notes:

246 lb is 17 ½ stone. The heavyweights today dwarf the best of the Marciano-Walcott-Charles-Patterson years.

The little red Reyes gloves first came to Australia with Earthquake Carter in 1981, dispatched by Chris Dundee.The Reyes have always been dynamite. We don’t know Grant gloves but if they hurt relatively less, Klitschko will probably demand Rainman use them. And why is Klitschko wearing them anyway himself?

Pity to see the International Boxing Federation let Wladimir Klitschko shut them out contemptuously from any say. Wouldn’t you like to see the Fed strip him forthwith?

They’d soon makeup the sanction money elsewhere.