By Jim Dower: Three-time heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (36-2, 35 KOs) was too much for WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (30-2, 23 KOs), defeating him after Peter opted to quit on his stool in between the 8th and 9th rounds on Saturday night at the O2 World Arena, Kreuzberg, in Berlin, Germany. Klitschko, 37, controlled the fight with his powerful jab and right hand, hitting Peter repeatedly during the fight and badly puffing up his face. Unable to land his shots against the towering Ukrainian, Peter looked beaten and discouraged at the end of the 8th round.

Vitali, who had used his right hand to counter Peter in the earlier rounds, began pounding him at will in the 8th round with one hard right hand after another. If Peter was hoping that Vitali was going to slow down and wear out, it didn’t seem likely with the way he was unloading on Peter in the 8th.

In the end, Vitali’s huge 6’8” height and long reach was far too much for the shorter 6’0” Peter, who was simply unable to land any significant punches. Vitali, 37, who hadn’t fought in four years, looked loose and relaxed against Peter. Unlike his younger brother, IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, Vitali didn’t choose to run around the ring and try to avoid exchanges with the power-punching Nigerian.

Instead, Vitali stood directly in front of him, with his hands down by his sides, daring Peter to punch him. Vitali would jab Peter repeatedly and hit him with short left hooks. This was more than enough to keep Peter stuck on the outside. When Peter would come charging in to throw a big shot, Vitali would lean backwards while at the same time throwing a short left hook that often would connect to the head of Peter.

After awhile, Peter stopped trying to come inside and found himself on the outside where he was easy pickings for Vitali’s jabs, hooks and right hands. As the fight wore on, Peter fell further and further behind, his mouth bleeding, his face swollen and right eye swollen. It was clear that he wasn’t going to be able to stop Vitali, not with him banging him with big shots whenever he would try to come in range. Finally, at the end of the 8th, a frustrated looking Peter shook his head and quit on his stool, thus ending the fight.

“If Peter hadn’t stopped the fight, I have a feeling in the next two rounds, I would have knocked him out, Vitali said afterwards. The win puts the Klitschko brothers in possession of three of the four heavyweight title belts, with the only one not in their possession being the WBA title, held by Nikolay Valuev.

That would be an intriguing bout for either of the Klitschko brothers, since Valuev is 7-feet tall and also Eastern European like the Klitschkos. However, Vitali has a mandatory challenger, Juan Carlos Gomez, whom he has to fight within 90 days or else risk getting stripped of his title, so Valuev may not be in the cards right now.

Peter, 28, probably did the right thing by ending the fight after the 8th. He was badly outclassed by Vitali, and didn’t have the size, pace or a hard enough attack to test Vitali’s chin. Going into the fight, it was thought that Peter would attack Vitali hard from the beginning of the fight, make him work hard and try to exhaust him.

After all, it had been four years since Vitali had fought and he had to have been more than a little rusty in terms of boxing skills. Unfortunately for Peter, he chose not to go all out, and fought timidly, without a lot of his old energy. This allowed Vitali to dictate the pace of the fight and dominate with his jab and right hand.

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