Peter: Vitali [Klitschko], you turn your head, I’m hitting you, I’m telling you right now”

By Michael Lieberman: In one of the more hilarious conference calls I’ve had the pleasure to listen to, World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (30-1, 23 KOs) and WBC emeritus champion Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) traded barbs back and forth, mangling the English language constantly and attacking each other verbally like wild dogs. Good stuff when I could make out what they were saying through their thick foreign accents. The two will be facing each other in the ring on October 11th, at the O2 World Arena, Kreuzberg, in Berlin, Germany.

The 37 year-old Vitali, a former WBC heavyweight champion from four years ago in 2004, now looks old and has a good amount of gray hair to go with his aged looks. Peter, 28, will be coming into the fight with his natural slightly overweight look to him. He punches plenty hard, though, for a fighter that looks as out of shape as he sometimes does, and this may be a problem for the ring rusty Vitali to have to deal with at this late stage in his career.

Vitali didn’t exactly come across as forthright to some of the interview questions that were thrown at him, in particular when he was asked about why he chose to face Peter without a warm up. In response to that question, Vitali commented ” I don’t need to warm up for fights. I feel great. I passed all the tests with my coach, and after that we decided to fight Samuel Peter.”

That sounded to me like an evasive answer, the type that you might hear if you were listening to a Politician rather than a fighter. I don’t know why Vitali couldn’t have been direct about it, telling the questioner “I’m afraid to get hurt again,” which would be something that probably a lot of us would have respected a lot more from him. When there’s an elephant in the room, you don’t ignore it and comment on the wallpaper. You got to tell it like it is, that’s how I see things.

Vitali went on to say that he now feels great, and is ready to take back his title after being out for three-and-a-half years. However, Vitali still didn’t come out and comment on his brittle body, which had let him down repeatedly four years, including when he initially made his comeback and was forced to cancel a bout with Jameel McCline. Again, Vitali wasn’t forthright about his problems, and that I found sadly disappointing.

Peter was easily the star of the conference call, making good points about Vitali and his brother Wladimir Klitschko, such as with this quote from Peter: “They fight like they’re robots. I beat his brother, [Wladimir Klitschko] but give him the fight. That does not matter. They both fight like robots. I’m not a robot. I am skilled fighter and puncher.”

Vitali went on to say that he’s been sparring with a number of fighters, some of them that fight in the same manner as Peter. However, Vitali, being secretive again, refused to give the names of his sparring partners. Peter, once again, cut though the garbage and shot at dart at Vitali with these comments:

“I don’t want to know who he’s sparring. I’m Samuel Peter. I don’t want to watch your tape. I don’t want to know your sparring fighter. Nobody can fight my style. You said you have a sparring fighter like Samuel Peter. Nobody fights like me. Nobody punches like me. When I punch you, you’ll remember you made a mistake.”

When Klitschko’s PR person, Bernd Boente, opened his trap to complain about Peter punching to the back of the head, Peter fired back with another excellent response, saying “It was clean punches on the chin. Everybody says I hit in the back of the head. Why do you turn your head? You’re a boxer. Don’t turn your head. You bob and weave. It’s a right hand. That’s your head… I don’t need to hit anyone behind the head. If you turn your head I hit you, because that’s not your face. A good boxer should bob and weave. Move side to side behind the head.”

This was in regards to Wladimir Klitschko, who quite frequently would turn his head to the side when Peter would attack him, causing punches from Peter that would normally have landed to the front of Wladimir’s head, but ended up hitting him on the back of the head due to Wladimir turning his head to the side to avoid the shots. It looked for all practical purposes like a strategy to get the referee to step in and stop Peter from getting his shots off. It didn’t work, though, because the referee allowed Peter to throw the shots because he likely saw what I saw, in other words, Wladimir turning his head to avoid getting hit.

Peter then added, “Vitali, you turn your head, I’m hitting you, I’m telling you right now.”

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