I enjoy beating up people for money – Klitschko

Heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko says he enjoys beating up people for a living and has no plans to retire from boxing soon.

According to Reuters, the 39-year-old Ukrainian, who will defend his collection of titles against Bryant Jennings in New York on Saturday night, said during the week, “What could be cooler, or better, than to be the best man on the planet and beating up people for a living?

“As long as I have motivation and health, I’ll do it. I don’t feel old, or bad, or slow.”

Klitschko, who holds the WBA “super” title as well as the WBO, IBF and IBO titles, has lost only three of his 66 professional fights.

He will equal Joe Louis’ record when he appears in his 27th heavyweight title fight on Saturday.

The champion will make his 18th title defence when he takes on Jennings, an American, at Madison Square Garden. He has dominated the heavyweight division for nearly a decade and has shown no signs of slowing down.

The two-metre tall Klitschko, who has won 53 of his fights inside the distance, faces an opponent whose record stands at 19-0 and who has stopped ten of his opponents.

Jennings has been boxing for only six years but the 30-year-old challenger from Philadelphia is not impressed by Klitschko’s accomplishments.

“My first edge is youth. Youth is always an edge that you can’t deny. Speed. Speed is an edge. These are things that are obvious,” he said during the week.

Despite Klitschko’s 7.6cm height advantage, Jennings has the same reach as the champion.

Klitschko, who will be within one of Larry Holmes’s 19 consecutive title defences if he wins this weekend – second to the mark of 25 held by Louis – said he was “allergic” to comparisons with other greats.

“How long I’ve been champion, how many title defences I’ve made … I don’t want to compare myself with any of the great heavyweights,” the 1996 Olympic champion, said. “I’m still looking up to those guys. They are still icons to me.”

If he beats Jennings, he could be matches with Britain’s Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder, who holds the WBC belt.

“I see the change of the generations is slowly coming, because I had all of those guys in my training camp coming up,” Klitschko said.

“They are very competitive, very young, very ambitious, very strong fighters that definitely are going to bring a lot of excitement in the ring.”