Vitali Doesn’t Appear to Punch as Hard as Wladimir

Photo: Pavel Terekhov – By Jason Kim: Although this is just my personal opinion based on my observation from Saturday night’s bout, I think Vitali Klitschko doesn’t punches as hard as his younger brother Wladimir Klitschko. I’m obviously not the first person that’s noticed this, because quite a few people have said the same thing. However, for me it wasn’t really clear until I watched Saturday night’s bout between Vitali and Chris Arreola.

Maybe this isn’t the best of examples for one of Vitali Klitschko’s fights, because he appeared to move much more in this fight than he had in his previous bouts. The incessant movement from side to side likely prevented Klitschko from setting up and putting as much as he could on his shots.

That being said, I’ve seen Wladimir in similar fights where he’s elected to move a great deal, yet in every case, he was able to generate tremendous power even while on the move with his hooks and right hands. It isn’t just Wladimir’s superior hand speed that seemed to enable him to punch harder.

He just seems to throw a lot harder punches with either hand than Vitali. In the past, I’ve heard trainers like Freddie Roach say that Wladimir is the hardest punching fighter that he’s ever worked with. I didn’t think much of that because Roach had never trained Vitali, as far as I know it. But now I know what he’s talking about.

It isn’t just Wladimir’s left hook and right hand that’s a lot better than Vitali’s similar punches, but also Wladimir’s jab. He throws it with a ton of power, and it almost seems like a power punch the way he throws it. Wladimir seems to be really be able to get a lot of snap on his jabs in a way that Vitali can only dream of. I think Vitali’s got a decent jab.

I mean obviously it must be good because he reddened Arreola’s face with it on Saturday night and really could have won the fight using that punch alone against Arreola. However, Vitali’s jab paled in comparison to Wladimir’s, even when Vitali was throwing it while standing flat footed. The punch just doesn’t have the same snap and power that Wladimir’s jab has on it.

Vitali’s power punches in his fight against Arreola seemed to be more of an arm punch than a real wind up power shot. But he seemed to get a lot of energy into the shots even though he was only moving his arm and his upper body just a little when he would throw them. I’ve never seen Wladimir throw short arm punches like that other than his left hook which he sometimes will wind up and spear his opponents with by surprise.

I’m not saying that Wladimir is a better fighter because he punches harder than his brother, because I don’t know that he is. But I think Wladimir has much more lethal strength than his brother. It would be better if Wladimir could throw arm shots with as much power as Vitali, because that would save Wladimir from wasted motion, conserving his strength while at the same time leave him less open for counter shots.

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