By Thomas Hanson: According to German news Bild Zeitung, former WBC/WBO heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) will be fighting WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (30-1, 23 KOs) on October 4th, at the O2 World Arena in Berlin, Germany. The two were already set to fight, but had no official date set for the bout. Nothing is still confirmed yet with this, but hopefully this date and location can be ironed out soon. Klitschko, now 37, hasn’t fought in almost four years, since defeating Danny Williams in December 2004, a fight in which Klitschko knocked Williams down four times en route to stopping him in the 8th round. Shortly after that, Vitali retired after injuring himself repeatedly while training for his title defense against American heavyweight Hasim Rahman.
It’s unclear how Peter, 27, would be affected having to fight in front of a large German and pro-Klitschko crowd, who will be no doubt be cheering every punch that Vitali throws in the fight. For a fighter that fights much on adrenalin and emotion (unlike his more non-emotional brother Wladimir), this will perhaps be a big plus for Vitali. Indeed, this may be just what he needs to get beyond the four years of inactivity and push him through what will likely be a very difficult fight for him.
Vitali has always had a good chin, excellent power and superb boxing ability, but has historically had issues with his stamina as the fight went into the later rounds. Of course, some of his boxing fans would probably argues against this, claiming that he never slows down in his fights, but looking at his fights against Chris Byrd (a fight in which Vitali quit on his stool in the 9th round after injuring his shoulder), Ross Puritty, Lennox Lewis and his last fight against Williams, Vitali looked badly tired near the end of those bouts.
Although he beat Puritty by a 11th round TKO, Vitali’s mouth was wide open, gasping for breath much of the time, and looking as if he were ripe for the taking. Puritty, however, was too beaten down and limited to do anything about it and just continued to take sporadic fire from Klitschko until the bout was eventually stopped due to a large cut that Puritty suffered.
Even with the German fans on his side, it will be a very difficult fight for Vitali to win. Peter is perhaps the best heavyweight in boxing at this time, at the top of his game, and easily the most dangerous and hardest puncher in the division. Sure, he lost to Wladimir several years ago, when Peter was a raw, 24 year-old up and coming talent, but he also succeeded in knocking Wladimir down three times and had him on the verge of being stopped late in the fight in the 10th round.
Now, Peter is at the zenith of his career, knocking out or beating down virtually all of his opponents and there are few fighters that can stand up to his power. Perhaps a prime Vitali, with his excellent chin, would have been a very tough opponent for him, but given the vast amount of time off from the ring, it’s doubtful that Vitali will be able to stay up with Peter for more than six rounds without tiring and getting stopped.
Unlike other heavyweight contenders, Vitali hasn’t had to work his way into his title shot against Peter, because he was given the title of “champion emeritus” by the WBC, due to him retiring while still the heavyweight champion in 2005. For this reason, Vitali is now the mandatory challenger for Peter without having faced a sole for nearly four years.