Wladimir Klitschko Makes it Thirteen Straight in Frankfurt

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The great Joe Louis had a “Bum of the Month” club all to himself. World Heavyweight Champion Wladimir Klitschko (55-3, 49 KO) of the Ukraine has to share his with his brother, WBC titlist Vitali Klitschko (40-2, 38 KO), but they share it with mutual domination.

The gap between the Klitschko’s and the rest of the Heavyweight field remained wide Saturday night at the Commerzbank-Arena in Frankfurt, Germany. Wladimir posted his second defense of the lineal Heavyweight crown with a tenth round rematch knockout of former WBC titlist Samuel Peter (37-4, 27 KO) of Nigeria in a tedious affair that saw the challenger seemingly generate more clinches than punches after the first couple rounds.

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Klitschko came into the bout at 247 lbs., the highest of his career. Peter came into the contest at 241 lbs., a pound and a half less than in a 2005 decision defeat to Wladimir but just more than three pounds over his most recent outing, a second round stoppage of Nagy Aguilera. Notably for Peter, he was in better shape than he’d been for each of his last two losses having scaled 265 in a 2009 decision defeat to Eddie Chambers, and 253 ½ in a 2008 eighth round surrender to Wladimir’s older brother to end Peter’s brief reign as a WBC titlist. Condition was a singular improvement.

The referee was Robert Byrd.

Peter came out aggressive behind the jab in round one and missed with a wild left hook. Klitschko clinched, pawing with a lead left hook and measuring with his own long left jab. A Peter hook was partly blocked but forced a step backwards from the champion before Klitschko clinched to stem the pace again. A Klitschko right landed off the jab as Peter sought to jab to his chest and Peter missed a right moments later. A slow combination attempt to the body by Peter was muffled by Klitschko near the ropes and Klitschko nailed Peter with a right near mid-ring. Peter was sloppy with a missing, wide left in the final ten seconds.

Peter landed a left to the body after a pair of soft jabs to start round two. A glancing Klitschko right found the face of Peter with another landing to the temple after a couple clinches. The pair traded rights out of yet another clinch, Klitschko’s landing harder, and the champion slammed two more rights home to get Peter’s attention. Wild rights and lefts missed for Peter who was without his jab. A lead left hook attempt near the ropes missed, Klitschko held on, and the bell rang to put the Ukrainian ahead two frames.

Asked by his corner to throw down the middle rather than from outside between rounds, Peter promptly returned to jabbing at the body of Klitschko in round three. A left hook to the body landed for the Nigerian and he managed to block a Klitschko right as he came forward. A Klitschko right landed near the halfway mark in another round rife with clinches, but it was Klitschko landing between grapples. Peter slipped a right but threw nothing before falling into another short hold. A wild left caught the gloves of Klitschko with thirty seconds left, the challenger still struggling to find some offense.

Klitschko connected with a right, a jab, and another right at the start of the fourth, another right before a minute was up, as Peter plodded without punching before falling into less than loving but safe embraces. His right eye swelling, Peter held on for a length stretch as the round reached its middle. Peter attempted some big lefts, and a big right, in the final thirty seconds but bruised only the air around him.

Byrd warned Peter for excessive clinching in round five and was clipped with accurate, concise punches when he couldn’t get close enough to grab for most of the rest of the round. A muffled right hand early in the round for Peter was all he could muster in his favor. Byrd warned Peter again in round six and the possibility of penalties, perhaps even an eventual disqualification, began to emerge in an increasingly unwatchable affair.

Steadily being picked apart by the jab of Klitschko, Peter got a respite in the seventh when tape came loose from his gloves. The action level wasn’t much different during the break than it was when they were actually facing each other, Peter doing little more than playing heavy bag to a champion in full control.

With his corner threatening to stop the fight before the eighth, Peter proceeded to be warned for both clinching and low blows over three more minutes of Klitschko domination. The champion didn’t seem to have much risk left in front of him but chose the wisdom of ease, landing when Peter was in front of him and leaving no room for a miracle.

Round nine saw no improvement from Peter and a new warning, this time for rabbit punching, before another admonishment for holding. Told by his corner he had one round to go for it, Peter found himself gone instead. Opening up with a sustained assault, Klitschko found a right hand and a nasty left hook at the end of it, Byrd jumping in to stop the beating as Peter collapsed to his back. No count was administered, the fight over at 1:22 of the tenth round.

Klitschko gave Peter credit for toughness and gameness after the contest, celebrating what is now his 13th straight victory. Ten have come inside the distance since a stoppage loss, later avenged, to Lamon Brewster in 2004. Klitschko won the IBF belt in 2006 with a knockout of Chris Byrd in 2006 and has defended it nine times while adding the WBO belt with a decision over Sultan Ibragimov in 2008 and the Ring Magazine title in 2009 with a stoppage of then-WBA titlist Ruslan Chagaev. The WBA title was not on the line in that contest.

That belt has moved on to the waist of the man most deem the leading contender to the Klitschko’s domination, England’s David Haye (24-1, 22 KO). Fights between Haye and the Klitschkos’s have fallen through due to injury cancellations and contract hassles to date. Haye is scheduled to face 2000 Olympic Super Heavyweight Gold Medalist Audley Harrison (27-4, 20 KO) in November.

Should he win, Haye versus either Klitschko brother will remain in 2011 what it is now: the richest fight in boxing outside the Welterweight division. Wealth aside, it wouldn’t have to struggle much to be more interesting than what was seen on Saturday night. It remains to be seen whether Haye truly wants the fight.

The card was televised in the U.S. on ESPN3.com, promoted by K2 Promotions.

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com

Comments

Dave_RadoMon Sep 13, 2010, 8:28 AM UTC

You slapped posters for being "haters"..... ..... but couldn't help bringing up Mayweather, even in a Klitschko thread. :D LOL! And corrupting his name too. Great post.

boxingfan76Mon Sep 13, 2010, 1:00 AM UTC

Pretty much fell asleep watching this, the hw division needs some talent in asap.so no country on earth can produce a champ in the last 10 years almost to beat either klitcko, and they have "no Talent"?whats that say about the rest of the world?, I dont get why the klitckos "have " to be beat because they arent american? or because theyre russian? theyre great and boring but theyve beat everyone in front of them its a new era, big guys can move and fight. theres this belief that only America can have the heavyweight champ,its really an arrogant beleif while its nice for us to have the an American championship at home , if the guy isnt American hes no good? or no talent? he sux?its really a childish and arrogant world veiw, and its not patriotism its haterism . the vlad brothers even live here and they still get no love! people are either terrified of russians or they have a hater problem, me im tired of fighters like gayfeather, he casts shame on america not pride, im glad the little filipino getting all the props and not him because gayfeather embodies whats wrong on sooo many levels ints not funny.

mrjoebliveMon Sep 13, 2010, 12:42 AM UTC

Funny thing is the same haters criticizing Wlad for being too cautious and for not getting hit are the same people that praise Floyd for being a defensive genius and always say boxing is about hitting and not being hit, yet they don't apply the same standard when talking about Wlad. News flash you f*cking haters - Wlad is in there with the big boys and not some 147 pounders, one mistake and he is out and then you haters will say that he has no chin, yet he still KOs 86% of his opponents. He also fights guys who are mandatories, undfeated, world champs, and Ring top 10, fight after fight. You are witnessing an ATG HOF boxer better get used to it because he is not going anywhere. Wlad > Ali while i always say its not wlads fault the divison is weak. and as far as top ten talent, really after the brothers there is no top ten talent. you might have been drinking purple cool aid though to say wlad is > than ali. thats wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy past a stretch. if wlad were able to go back and face the talent ali had to face, he would get ktfo in most of his fights. cooney would have had both brothers for lunch. its ok to root for your man and all but really get real. there is no one with their sanity intact that would say wlad is greater than ali. that statement is tttoooooooooooo funny.:Flush:

mrjoebliveMon Sep 13, 2010, 12:32 AM UTC

Anyone who loves boxing so much that they would be willing try to knock out a family member whom they loved, for money, would be a seriously mentally disturbed and ****** up individual. dave, i have to agree with you on this one 100%. there is no way i would fight my brother just for money. they make a ton of money in germany. that would be very sick to fight your famil for bragging rights.

LacrimosaSun Sep 12, 2010, 7:51 AM UTC

Lewis threw a lot more combinations than Wlad does but that's it. He almost never went to the body or fought on the inside. He almost never took unnecessary risks after Steward became his trainer. Wlad's punches are thrown with just as much authority and power as Lewis's punches were. And Wlad has a much harder jab than Lewis had. Lewis often pawed with his jab, and even when he used it effectively, his jab was far less hurtful than Wlad's jab. The one big advantage Lewis had in terms of excitement was that he threw a lot more combinations, and occasionally blew out dangerous opponents early because of that, e.g. Ruddock, Golota, Rahman, Grant. I'll give you that. But still, for many of his fights, he was no more entertaining than Wlad is, and was frequently just as over-cautious. And Wlad is gradually coming out of his shell. He's nowhere near as over-cautious as he was 4-5 fights ago. And the reason he became too over-cautious isn't hard to understand. You talk about all his tools, but you ignore the fact that he has perhaps the weakest chin of any lineal Heavyweight champion since Floyd Patterson. For someone with a chin that weak to become such a dominant champion is an amazing achievement. You can decry the style he's adopted in order to achieve that, but you can't say it wasn't totally understandable that he should adopt such an over-cautious style, and you can't argue with its effectiveness. It's several years since he's even clearly lost a single round to anyone, and yet he's been fighting top 10 fighters the whole time. Great Post, Dave! Would give green if I could.

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