Klitschko Wins Boring Decision

By Eric Schmidt: IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (50-3, 44 KOs) won a listless safety first 12-round unanimous decision over WBO champion Sultan Ibragimov (22-1-1, 17 KOs) tonight at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The bout was important in that Klitschko, 31, unified one of the titles, the WBO, which he took from Ibragimov in getting the victory. Rarely did Klitschko attempt a right hand, mostly using his jab to keep the much smaller Ibragimov on the outside. Though he tried to make a fight of it, Ibragimov was simply too short, too weak and too slow to do much with Wladimir.

It didn’t help Ibragimov much that Wladimir was only using his jab, leaning back most of the time, which prevented the counter-punching Ibragimov few opportunities to land his own shots. On the occasions that Ibragimov would come forward to attempt to land a punch, Klitschko would often dart backwards out of range of Ibragimov. What was most frustrating, however, was the fact that Klitschko wouldn’t let his hands go, in particular his right hand. He did, however, began using it sparingly from rounds six though twelve, but it was still a rare event when he did.

The final judges’ scores were 119-110, 117-111 and 118-110. I had Klitschko winning every round of the fight, due to his superior jab which he landed repeatedly in every round. Ibragimov, though an aggressor, in some of the rounds, he just had major problems landing anything other than occasional body shots. In the meantime, he was getting hit with a lot of powerful jabs from Klitschko. His jab alone was enough to cause Ibragimov problems, as it turned out. Perhaps the most exciting round of the fight was in the 9th, when Wladimir tagged Ibragimov with two consecutive right hands that drove him back into the ropes.

If Wladimir had turned it up like he had in the past, he’d have likely taken Ibragimov out in a round or two. As it is, Wladimir disappointed the ringside audience, many of which booed him constantly throughout the fight. More than that, however, Wladimir hurt his reputation with this poor showing for his safety first style of fighting made him look timid of getting hit. All I can say is, if Wladimir uses this same style against his IBF mandatory, Alexander Povetkin, he’ll lose to him either on points or by knockout.