Photo courtesy of www.klitschko.com -By Aaron Klein: Wladimir Klitschko (51-3, 45 KOs) once again defended his IBF/WBO heavyweight titles this time stopping Tony Thompson (31-2, 19 KOs) in the 11th round to record his fifth title defense of his IBF title that he won in 2006 with a win over Chris Byrd. Though Thompson, 36, was thought to be a tough test for Wladimir going into the fight, it was never a contest as Wladimir easily dominated the tall 6′5″ southpaw Thompson with hard right hands and kept him from ever really getting his offense in gear. The end came in the 11th round when Wladimir sent a laser right hand down the pipe and nailed Thompson, sending him collapsing to the canvas in a heap.

The fight was stopped with Thompson, hurt and bleeding, not able to get up in time. The win showed Wladimir at his best, shooting rights often in the fight and hitting Thompson any time he wanted. Wladimir seemed to be following the textbook advice on how to fight a southpaw, that is, by throwing right hands rather than jabs or left hooks. Perhaps this is why Wladimir made it a habit early to hit him with rights. It wasn’t as if it was hard for him, because Thompson seemed unable to get out of the way of any of them. Wladimir was cut over his right eye in the 2nd round by a head butt. That was probably Thompson’s best shot of the fight, as he couldn’t land anything hard enough to crack Wladimir’s chin.

Without any power to keep Wladimir fighting cautiously, Thompson was at the mercy of Wladimir, who used Thompson’s face as target practice from the 1st until the 11th round. The fight was never even slightly competitive because Thompson, a fighter that likes to get in close in order to throw punches, would get hit with heavy shots from Wladimir on the way in. When Thompson would get close enough to throw any punches, more often than not Wladimir would immediately clinch him.

With this win, Wladimir finds himself with yet another opponent biting the dust. At this point he’s starting to run out of quality fighters to defend his title to. Indeed, there’s only a handful of good fighters left, starting with Alexander Povetkin, his number #1 mandatory challenger for his IBF title. Povetkin, a former 2004 Olympic Gold medalist, is slow, more of a plodder-type heavyweight, who doesn’t make up ground quickly. Against Wladimir, he’ll likely get hit often as he comes forward trying to get in punching range. At 6′2″, Povetkin would be giving up a lot of height and reach against Wladimir and would have to try and get close in order to get his punches off.

The problem with that, though, is that Wladimir always clinches fighters that get close to him. This means that Povetkin would have to try and get his shots off quickly before Wladimir grabs him. He may be able to do this some of the time, but not nearly enough to beat Wladimir by decision. Povetkin doesn’t have a lot of power, and usually wins by out-working his opponents at close range. In a way, he’s like a shorter version of Thompson. That’s not good for Povetkin. This will probably be an easy win for Wladimir. American heavyweight Chris Arreola is another potential opponent, although not any time soon due to Arreola’s #9 ranking in the WBO and #10 ranking.

At 6′4″, Arreola has the size, power and the work rate to give Wladimir some problems. Unfortunately, Arreola’s not particularly fast and would have issues dealing with Wladimir’s quicker hands and longer reach. This fight would be fought at long range, with Wladimir jabbing Arreola for extended periods of the fight and likely hitting him with left hooks. I doubt that Arreola would make it through the bout without being knocked down or out.

Nikolay Valuev, the 7-foot Russian Giant may be the best opponent of all for Wladimir, someone that has both the reach and the power to give Wladimir big problems. However, Valuev is also very slow, and tends to depend a lot on his jabs to win fights. He probably couldn’t win a battle of jabs with Wladimir, who would move around the ring and get better extension on his jabs that Valuev, who tends to fight standing tall, not bending forward enough to get the maximum benefit from his jab. Wladimir would probably blind him with his jabs, then follow it with powerful right hands.

I see this fight as being a one-sided mismatch with Wladimir stopping Valuev early in the fight, probably by the 6th or 7th round. Valuev is simply too slow to compete against a large, mobile heavyweight like Wladimir. This fight would probably be the biggest money maker of any heavyweight in the division, besides a fight against Vitali Kilitschko, Wladimir’s brother, but Valuev has a fight coming up with John Ruiz. After that, if successful, Valuev will be going against the often ill WBA heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev.

Samuel Peter, the WBC heavyweight champion, is another appealing option for Wladimir. Unfortunately, he has a tough fight coming up in October against Vitali Klitschko. This is a fight that Peter will be lucky to get through in one piece if Vitali ever makes past his training camp and into the fight. If Vitali makes it to the fight, I don’t see Peter being skilled enough, or large enough to beat the 6′8″ Vitali, who jab him all night and keep him from landing. Although Peter gave Wladimir a lot of problems in his previous fight with him in 2005, knocking him down three times, he probably won’t be able to do the same to Vitali.

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