Pole’s position no great thing for Green Machine
Krzysztof 'Diablo' Wlodarczyk receives congratulations after winning over US boxer Steven 'USS' Cunningham in Warsaw, 26 November 2006.
On paper, Krzysztof Wlodarczyk is as classy an opponent as Danny Green has faced. The Pole, known as ‘Diablo’ or ‘Devil’, has a formidable 45-2-1 record with 32 wins by KO, is the current WBC cruiserweight world champion and has held the IBF world crown. And, crucially, he is only 30 – eight years Green’s junior and 13 years younger that Antonio Tarver, the American who stopped Green for the first time in his career in July.
Green sees himself as the underdog – even if Sportingbet sees him as the $1.78 favourite with the Pole at $2. He says a victory in Perth on Wednesday would mark his finest-ever achievement; a Rocky-like comeback after the Tarver flooring. But it’s hard to know what to make of this fight.
At about the same time as the Green-Tarver bout, reports surfaced in Poland that Wlodarczyk had overdosed on sleeping pills and was placed in an induced coma. His camp denied anything untoward. They say it was an innocent mistake after he had a fight with his wife and couldn’t sleep, and took too many tablets. They say he was never in a coma – but did have his stomach pumped – and was back in the gym two days later. They, and Green, insist he is in great health and that the WBC wouldn’t sanction the fight if he wasn’t. But question marks remain. It’s a long way from Warsaw to WA, particularly when you hold the belt anyway.
Green wants to be remembered for fighting the big fights – in contrast to his foe Anthony Mundine. But wouldn’t another farce cause irreparable damage to his reputation, especially after the Paul Briggs diving fiasco last year? Hasn’t he put himself in a lose-lose situation? If Green wins, critics will say Wlodarczyk wasn’t at his best – and probably shouldn’t have fought at all. And if Green loses, well, he loses – making him just the latest in a long list of boxers who should have quit years earlier, but didn’t know how.
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