TalkingBoxing Articles
Wladimir Klitschko – Professor and Champion
TUE September 27, BUSTER PARIS - “No way is Wladimir Klitschko going to win this fight against ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ Samuel Peter. It’s not going to happen.” Yup – I said that.
“…there’s no way Klitschko is making it past 6 or 7 rounds – if even that many.” Yup – I said that too.
With less than a minute left in the 12th round I was almost swooning at the majesty of the moment and at the same time in disbelief of what I seeing – the Nigerian Nightmare staggering his way onto Queer Street after a huge Klitchko left hook showed him the way - then it flashed in bold letters across my mind – What if Klitschko Knocks Out Samuel Peter!?!?!
Saturday, September 24th at Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, NJ a new era and new energy was ushered in for Wladimir Klitschko. There’s new life there and his amazing technical proficiency is better than ever.
Wladimir Klitscko is reborn, improved and he proved to be a Professor of the Sweet Science delivering a very educational fight for his opponent and for boxing fans.
For Samuel Peter – he graduated Advanced Sweet Science in Application. We now wait and see what he learned.
Round 1 – right at the opening bell Wladimir Klitschko rushed in and started jabbing Samuel Peter in the face. This entire round is all Klitschko. It’s not at all what I expected. Peter just could not get by that jab.
With 45 seconds left Wlad lands a picture perfect ‘left – right’ combination. I can’t recall a more technically beautiful ‘1 – 2’ punch. It was one of those where you yell out “OH!” and add the memory to your mental Rolodex of great punches.
As the rounds went on, aside from the occasional lapse of Wladimir not throwing or lazily placing the jab, Samuel wouldn’t get by it all night.
Klitschko fought a technically brilliant fight. In order to save face I’d like nothing more than to be able to say, “see – I was right, Wlad’s done”, but I can’t. He looked better than ever, fought brilliantly and dug deep.
That’s an important point – Klitschko dug deep.
In round 5 at 2:21 - Peter finally lands a big shot on the back of Wlad’s head causing Klitschko to drop to his knees. He’s in survival mode as Peter catches him again and for the 2nd time in the round Wlad goes south. Here’s a point where Wladimir digs deep. He’s been down twice and doesn’t give up. Intelligently he tries to hold and gets on his bicycle when he can. At 45 seconds to go Klitschko looks like a homerun hitter entering the batters box. He is once again poised and impressively trying to set up in position to mount an offense.
Round 6, 7 and 8 both fighters seemed tired, the threat of Klitschko being knocked out was ominously present in every gigantic Peter swing and miss. These later rounds are the ones that have consistently given Wlad trouble, that have consistently seen him run out of steam and pardon the pun – these are rounds that have seen him peter out.
That was not to be the case tonight.
It’s funny, but by the 9th round I completely forgot that Wladimir had been down at all in the fight. He was in charge. He kept chipping away with that jab and dictating the pace as well as controlling and governing the engagements.
Then with about 30 seconds left in round 10 Samuel threw an overhand right that must have come from the rafters and knocked Klitschko down. Wlad again goes into survival mode trying to hold on and with 7 seconds left is supported by the ropes - if not for the ropes he would have been sitting in press row.
Round 11 and Klitschko’s jab is ruling the ring again and that ‘left – right’ combination is proof enough as to why he’s Dr. Steelhammer.
The 12th and final round I expected Samuel to come out wild, with clobbering shots flying. They were trading blows and Peter eventually lands a big left hook, Wladimir tries to hold on then he lands a big left hook of his own. There’s less than a minute to go and Samuel Peter looks as if he’s about to go down – and big bold letter flash across my mind - What if Klitschko Knocks Out Samuel Peter!?!?!
What a great ending to a great fight. All the judges had it scored 114 to 111 for the NEW NABF Heavyweight Champion – Wladimir Klitchko.
The big theme for Klitschko was to box and hold. He didn’t abuse the clinch like “Huggy” Ruiz and actually employed it flawlessly – it was the textbook usage of the clinch as a defensive weapon.
Both the clinch and the right hand were utilized perfectly, not too much and not too little – absolutely perfect.
Defensively, in addition to tying up Samuel, Wladimir would keep his right hand high enabling him to block huge punches and that superb jab was used brilliantly as both offense and defense.
I know I keep going here, but let’s back up to April 2005 when Klitschko’s trainer Emanuel Steward was asked if Wladimir is ready for the elites of the Heavyweight division. Emanuel responded that Wladimir has pretty much always been ready for the elites. It just so happened that he had 2 bad fights [Corrie Sanders - March 2003 and Lamon Brewster - April 2004] in such close proximity of each other, nothing more than that.
“Nothing more than that” could really be the answer.
One of the biggest worries going in to this fight was his conditioning and it seemed to not be an issue.
The other even bigger question was could Wladimir Klitschko take a punch?
With the great Emanuel Steward in his corner that question for the time being is irrelevant. If you can’t get hit on the chin, then it’s not entirely an issue.
For Samuel Peter - the loss will be a great learning tool. He can study the tapes and study himself. There is a lot to learn from this experience and it’s going to be very cool to see what he takes away from this and how he applies it.
“No way is Wladimir Klitschko going to win this fight against ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ Samuel Peter. It’s not going to happen.” Yup – I said that.
“…there’s no way Klitschko is making it past 6 or 7 rounds – if even that many.” Yup – I said that too.
Wladimir – once again you have proven me wrong and have proven yourself to be a legend in the making. Great fight Champ! – Thanks for the clinic, thanks for the surprise and I can’t wait to see your next fight.
As an aside - September 24th was really a great night for boxing – especially coming off a tragedy like losing Leavander Johnson. Miguel Cotto and Ricardo Torres (undercard of Klitschko – Peter) was a great fight. Both fights were fair, well fought and what we expect from boxing.
Buster Paris can be reached at: bparis@talkingboxing.com - and likes his Crow cooked medium rare.
Forum
