Klimas the Cornerman

By Michael Woods

Theatre of the unexpected, wordsmith Larry Merchant used to tell us, was the best descriptor for boxing when we saw the latest jaw-dropper happening in the sweet science realm.

Here’s a bit of an unexpected wrinkle that you will see Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, on a card topped by a Deontay Wilder WBC title defense against Artur Szpilka: a manager working the corner of his fighter, to attempt to insure that the hitter will be properly motivated during his bout.

The manager is Egis Klimas, the Lithuanian deal maker who handles Sergey Kovalev, Vasyl Lomachenko and a slew of Eastern Euro prospects. The fighter who will be hearing from the manager/cornermen is Czar Glazkov, a 31 year old Ukrainian who sometimes drifts during rounds. I first heard of this setup from a Steve Kim Tweet.

“Yes, I will work the corner just to make sure all goes well,” Klimas told NYFIGHTS. “Yes, I have been in the corner before many times, don’t forget my tutor was the best, Don Turner. I am a licensed cornermen in New York. I worked Lomachenko’s last fight, I did every fight of his. I’ve been in Sergey’s corner many times.”

What he might say he couldn’t say, he will have to see how things go against Prince Charles Martin in the scuffle for the IBF heavyweight crown. File this one, I guess, as a case of “if you want something done right, do it yourself.”