By Thomas Gerbasi

I’m not going to blame David Haye for what happened last Saturday in Hamburg, Germany. Not even his broken toe. The fault for the less than scintillating heavyweight championship fight lies solely with Haye’s opponent, Wladimir Klitschko.

And that’s not a bad thing. At least for the undisputed king of boxing’s big men. Yes, Wlad’s big brother Vitali owns the WBC version of the crown, but for all intents and purposes, it’s little bro who rules the roost. And any critics need to get used to that.

I’m one of those critics. I was convinced that Haye had the style, power, speed, and chutzpah to break the stranglehold Team Klitschko had on the division for years. With varying reasons, I thought Eddie Chambers, Sultan Ibragimov, Ruslan Chagaev, and Calvin Brock were going to do the same thing.

But Haye was the chosen one, a former cruiserweight champion who had obsessed over Klitschko for years, convinced that he was going to succeed where his previous 13 opponents had not. He had a plan, he had the opportunity, and he finally got the deal he wanted.

Then the bell rang and it was the same story told for nearly seven years.

Think about that. Wladimir Klitschko has not lost since he was halted in five rounds by Lamon Brewster in 2004. It’s an amazing run any way you slice it, and he’s done it with a simple, yet effective, strategy – jab, jab, occasional right hand, sometimes a left hook thrown in for good measure. It’s as basic as you can get, but his fundamental mastery of boxing’s basics will someday be celebrated.

Not today though.

Today, we want homeruns, touchdowns, slam dunks, and knockouts. Klitschko delivers doubles to the gap, three yards and a cloud of dust, and 20-foot jumpers. It’s not sexy, but it works. In the process, he’s given up trying to please an American public that wants all the former, but little of the latter. This is the same country that will never appreciate soccer as a spectator sport because there are no 9-8 scores. Sluggers Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa made headlines nationwide during their homerun race of 1998. Baltimore Orioles standout Cal Ripken didn’t do the same until he played in his 2,131st consecutive game in 1995.

Not that it really matters to Klitschko. He fills stadiums in Europe, is a certified icon both in Germany and his native Ukraine, and likely has more money than he can ever spend. He has long given up on trying to win over the United States market (he has only fought once in the States in the last four years), and it really doesn’t matter to him anymore.

The 35-year old has also liberated himself from listening and responding to the critics. He is comfortable in his own skin and his performances show it. The way it looked in the lead-up to the Haye fight, Klitschko had taken enough barbs and abuse from the Brit that he was going to go off script, let emotions get in the way and engage in a firefight with Haye. That, I surmised, was why Haye was going to win. In a close-quarters war, Haye had the speed and power to make every shot hurt.

Wladimir just wouldn’t play along. And in the process, it was even more humiliating to Haye than if he knocked him out in a three round war. To leave his opponent ducking and dodging and shooting out only sporadic punches over the course of 12 rounds had to be even more satisfying for the cerebral Klitschko, simply because he won the mental battle.

Admittedly, it was no fun to see, and if Haye is basing his retirement plans on whether he gets a rematch or not, it’s safe to say that “The Hayemaker” has fought his last fight. But there is still plenty of fight in Klitschko, whose run through the heavyweight division shows no signs of slowing down. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the top two “contenders” in the sanctioning bodies’ current rankings and tell me who will end the reign.

IBF – Chambers, Tony Thompson? Been there, done that.

WBA – Chagaev? Ditto. Alexander Povetkin? He’s already backed out of two Klitschko fights. There must be some reason for that.

WBO – Tomasz Adamek? Big brother will take care of him. Robert Helenius? I’m not convinced.

Who else is there? Chris Arreola? Come on. Bermane Stiverne? He has power, but didn’t he just make Ray Austin look like Larry Holmes for nine rounds before winning by knockout?

At this rate, Klitschko can fight for another 10 years and really silence all the doubters. And for all the talk of this being perhaps the worst era in heavyweight history (and it probably is), Klitschko has done what you do during an era like that – you beat everyone in your path and you do it convincingly like Joe Louis and Larry Holmes did.

That may sound like blasphemy to hardcore fight fans, but you can’t blame Klitschko for the era he is fighting in. There have been decent fighters who have shared the ring with him, but he’s just made them look ordinary. And while I haven’t been convinced of his place with the greats in the past, Saturday I was. David Haye is not an all-time great heavyweight, but he was one who I was sure would fight Klitschko. Not box with him, not dance with him, but fight him.

To me, that was the blueprint to beating Klitschko. Take him out of his comfort zone, get in his face, and make him trade punches so you can test his supposedly weak chin. That takes a certain amount of chin and fearlessness on your own end, and the last man to implement that strategy was the last man to beat him – Lamon Brewster. Since then, no one has tried to do the same thing.

Why?

Dare I say that for all the wins his opponents put together, none of them really wanted to fight anymore after eating a diet of jabs, a few thudding right hands, and dealing with the frustration of putting their arms out to punch only to find themselves still a foot away from landing. I do. Haye is a certified knockout artist. Chagaev wasn’t called “White Tyson” because he was timid. Chambers is one of the more talented boxers to come around in the last five years. What do they all have in common? They couldn’t pull the trigger against Klitschko. It can’t be a coincidence.

So I’ve given up. Wladimir Klitschko is the real deal, the best heavyweight of this era, and his reign is likely to last for as long as he wants it to. There, I’ve said it. And I mean it.