Vitali Klitschko: Joshua doesn’t have a chance if Wladimir is focused 100%

By Boxing News - 12/21/2016 - Comments

Image: Vitali Klitschko: Joshua doesn’t have a chance if Wladimir is focused 100%

By Eric Baldwin: Former heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko believes his brother Wladimir Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) will absolutely beat IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (18-0, 18 KOs) in their fight on April 29, as long as the 40-year-old Wladimir is 100 percent dialed in for their fight at Wembley Stadium in London, England.

Vitali doesn’t see Wladimir’s age as issue. He feels that Wladimir is still young and has five more years at the top of boxing as long as he’s focused. Before retiring two years ago, Vitali was still fighting a high level in the sport, and he looked unbeatable.

Vitali had some injury problems that kept him out of the ring for a year before he retired. Wladimir is perceived differently than Vitali was. Wladimir is seen by a lot of boxing fans as someone who has lost a lot from his game in terms of his accuracy, reflexes and ability to let his hands go. Vitali didn’t show those same flaws as he aged. He was still firing bombs in his 40s.

Vitali said this to Fighthype.com about Wladimir’s chances against Joshua:

“It’s two Olympic gold medalists, two of the best heavyweights in the world,” said Vitali about his brother Wladimir and Joshua. “It’s just huge interest, and I know Wladimir has great skills. He sometimes misses focus in his fights. If Wladimir Klitschko will be focused 100 percent, Joshua doesn’t have a chance. But everything depends on Wladimir. For Wladimir, age is nothing, 40-years-old. He’s got a lot of experience. The main point is if Wladimir is focused, he can be heavyweight champion of the world for the next five years.”

The way Wladimir looked in his last fight against Tyson Fury, he does not look like he has five more years left in the tank as a top fighter in boxing. Wladimir can surely fight for another five years and beat a lot of guys, but he’s not going to be able to beat the real quality heavyweights at the top of the division.

Wladimir looked dreadful in the Fury fight in November 2015, and that was over a year ago. Wladimir hasn’t fought since. Without Wladimir taking a tune-up, he’s going to be in the same position the 51-year-old Bernard Hopkins was in when he came off of a long layoff from the ring to fight Joe Smith Jr. last Saturday night. Wladimir isn’t as old as Hopkins, but I think he’s not far behind him in the deterioration department from age.

Whether Wladimir is focused in this fight or not doesn’t really matter. This is a fight that Wladimir could have taken even in his youth when was at the top of his game, and he would have problems with Joshua’s height, reach, power and his ability to brawl. Joshua appears to have a good chin, and take some really hard shots without getting hurt. That’s why Joshua is so willing to jump on his opponents in his fights. He knows that he’ll be able to take the best punches from his opponents while he’s chopping them up with his own power shots. Wladimir does appear to have the same ability to take punishment that we see from Joshua.

Moreover, Wladimir doesn’t show the confidence in his own chin that allows for him to throw his power shots. Wladimir looks like he’s afraid to get hit back. That’s a huge liability for Wladimir. If he’s not confident enough to throw his own power shots, then he’s going to be stuck trying to beat Joshua by the use of just his jab when the two fighters face each other on Sky Box Office PPV on April 29. Wladimir is not going to beat Joshua by jabbing and moving for 12 rounds. That style barely worked for Wladimir against Bryant Jennings.

For Wladimir to have a chance of beating Joshua, he’s going to need to do these things:

Move frequently to keep from getting hit by Joshua’s power shots. Joshua can KO an opponent with either hand, and that makes things more difficult for Wladimir.

Clinch as much as possible to keep Joshua from being able to let his hands go. In other words, Wladimir needs to be his natural self when he gets inside the ring with Joshua. He’s got to hold like no tomorrow, and hope the referee doesn’t enforce the excessive clinching rule. The fight is taking place in the UK, so there’s a possibility the referee will do his job by taking points away from Wladimir if he chooses to hold all night long like we’ve seen from him many times in the past.

Throw LOTs and LOTs of jabs. Wladimir has one of the best jabs in the heavyweight division when he remembers to use it. In this fight, it’s going to be extremely important that Wladimir uses his jab at all times so he can keep Joshua from lining him up for one of his big right hands. Joshua doesn’t use his left hook except when he gets near to one of his opponents. Wladimir doesn’t have to worry about getting hit by a left hook while he’s jabbing. He’ll just need to make sure he keeps his right hand near his chin in case Joshua tries to counter him with a right while he’s throwing one of his jabs.

Attack Joshua early with right hands and left hooks. Wladimir will need to change his normal fighting style for him to have a chance of beating Joshua. This means that Wladimir will need to start quickly and come out swinging in the 1st round. We saw how Dillian Whyte was able to make Joshua go from slugging to boxing him for many rounds after he started fast and hurt him in the 2nd. If Wladimir does the same thing with Joshua, he could make him think twice about throwing his own power shots. If Joshua changes his own game to start boxing Wladimir, then this will give him a good chance of winning the fight, because that’s the style that he likes to fight. Wladimir prefers to box rather than slug.