November 15, 2006 -- THE boxing world hasn't had a Great White Hope since Gerry Cooney, but it has a marketable new personality in Wladimir Klitschko, the 6-foot-6 native of Kazakhstan who knocked out Calvin Brock in the seventh round at the Garden on Saturday. :scared
Klitschko, who already had endorsement deals with Hugo Boss and Mercedes, is bound to get more offers now that the HBO audience has been introduced to his right hand, which The Post's George King wrote was "cocked for most of the fight, coiled like some kind of deadly cobra." :SIB
The slugger - unlike so many other fighters - is business-savvy. His K-2 Promotions was responsible for getting all the stars to Saturday's Garden party: Muhammad Ali, Dennis Hopper, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Lui, Mickey Rourke, Jerome Bettis, Boris Becker, Matthew Modine, Dick Parsons, David Wright, Bob Costas, Bryant Gumbel and Paul Lo Duca. :SIB :SIB
Klitschko, an amateur magician, :142smilie flew out to Los Angeles to make a $100 bill dance last night on Jay Leno's "Tonight" show. Then he's off to Munich, to be honored at the GQ International Man of the Year dinner.
He and his older brother Vitali, who retired from boxing, will also be honored by UNESCO in Paris on Dec. 4 for their work with underprivileged children.
Klitschko's next opponent could be Shannon Briggs, who watched the bout from ringside and then crashed the post-fight press conference.
Later at Plumm - where Briggs partied with Eddie House and Vince Carter of the Nets, porn star Heather Hunter and fellow fighter Zab Judah, who was engrossed half the evening with MTV veejay LaLa - the dreadlocked boxer said he'd be "taking on the giant" sometime in the spring.
With all his upcoming endorsements, when Klitschko steps into the ring then, he'll have a lot more to lose than just brain cells and blood.
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