THE OTHER KAZAKH VISITOR.(The Talk of the Town)

Wladimir Klitschko's recent New York adventure began in relative anonymity, which was odd, given that he is the heavyweight champion of the world. He first arrived in town in September, checked into the Embassy Suites in lower Manhattan, and made his way about the city without an entourage. "It is such a nice feeling if people recognize you and shake your hand," Klitschko said. "But there are issues more important in life."

He had come to town to defend his title, or, more precisely, his two-fifths share. Boxing's five sanctioning bodies now recognize four champions (Klitschko is the champion of the International Boxing Federation and the International Boxing Organization), who--with the exception of the new World Boxing Organization champion, Shannon Briggs--share with Klitschko the distinction of coming from the former Soviet Union. Klitschko is Ukrainian. He was born in Kazakhstan, but he has a house in Las Vegas, often stays with his brother in Los Angeles, and spends a good deal of time in Kiev and Hamburg, where he is extremely popular. His mother is after him to get married.

Klitschko is thirty years old. He is six feet five--tall even by heavyweight standards--broad across the shoulders and chest, and tapered at the waist. He speaks four languages, plays chess, and comports himself with the air of a man capable of thinking beyond the next payday. He was eager to fight at Madison Square Garden; his late mentor, the German heavyweight Max Schmeling, advised him that the good money was to be made in New York. Klitschko does his own promoting and insists that it was he who negotiated the terms of the Garden fight. "I don't want to be a mechanism in a system without being asked what I want," he said.

The man chosen to fight him was Calvin Brock, known as "the Boxing Banker." Brock is a college graduate who spent nine months as an entry-level analyst at Bank of America. The champ, however, had the advantage in height, ...