By Allan Fox: former world champion Wladimir Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) has 5 weeks to go before the biggest fight of his career against IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (18-0, 18 KOs) on April 29 at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Wladimir just turned 41 last Saturday, and he feels that age is just a number and that it doesn’t mean anything. Wladimir may be right, but you cannot ignore the combination of age and inactivity that he’s going to be dealing with when he gets inside the ring with the 27-year-old Joshua.
Being 41 isn’t the end of the world, but when you haven’t fought in 2 years like Wladimir, it can be a big problem for him.
“Age is only a number. Most important thing is trusting your body, feeling confident, believing in your experiences. #obsessed,” said Wladimir on his social media site.
Wladimir sounds like he’s been reading a lot of self-help books to try and convince himself he can beat Joshua. The thing is if Wladimir doesn’t truly believe what he’s saying, then he’s only kidding himself. The boxing fans aren’t the ones that are going to be fighting Joshua. Its Wladimir, and I’m not sure he actually believes he can win.
Wladimir can believe all he wants that he’s going to win, but he’s still going to have problems with Joshua’s youth, size, power and athleticism in this fight. It might be better for Wladimir to acknowledge that he’s afraid and facing someone that has a very good chance of beating him. Wladimir has to fight smart by staying on the move, jabbing and tying Joshua up as much as possible.
Wladimir can’t let Joshua get his shots off the way he normally does because he’ll take him out quickly if he opens up with one of his flurries. It might not even take combination punching by Joshua for him to win. He can probably stun Wladimir with a single punch. Once Wladimir is hurt, he’ll be defensive and won’t be able to block the storm of punches that Joshua hits him with to take him out.
The last time Klitschko fought was in November 28, 2015 in losing to Tyson Fury by a 12 round unanimous decision. Wladimir showed poor accuracy with his punches, and he didn’t let his hands go during the fight. This was Wladimir’s second consecutive less than impressive performance. In Wladimir’s fight against Bryant Jennings, he looked almost as bad as he did against Fury.
Wladimir couldn’t land his right hand even with Jennings stranding directly in front of him. After missing repeatedly with his right, Wladimir gave up on the punch and spent the remainder of the fight jabbing and moving. He looked like an over-the-hill fighter that was depending on his jab and legs to keep him winning. Against Fury, Wladimir needed more than his jab to win, and he couldn’t do it.
“Still 5 weeks to go. #obsessed #Joshua-Klitschko,” said Wladimir. ”I’m looking forward to this challenge. I have my goal – to become three-time world champion. My motivation is high as the sky. #obsessed,” said Wladimir.
Wladimir was motivated for his last fight against Fury, and look what happened to him. Wladimir appeared to be petrified to throw his punches against a fighter that has little punching power in the 6’9” Fury. Wladimir should have been able to jump on Fury and take him out with a storm of power shots. If Wladimir wasn’t so concerned with getting countered, he would have thrown follow up punches at close range when he would miss his shots. Instead of doing that, Wladimir would grab Fury in a clinch to keep him from throwing punches.
Wladimir’s older brother, Vitali Klitschko, wasn’t afraid to get hit. He would throw his power shots and trust his chin to take whatever punches that his opponents might him with when he would miss a punch. Vitali didn’t miss a lot, but when he did fail to connect, he was able to take the counter shots. Most heavyweights aren’t particularly good at landing counter punches. The long-armed Fury is not a close range fighter. That’s why it made no sense for Wladimir to be treating him with so much respect because should have been able to take whatever punches Fury hit him with when he would miss a shot.
Wladimir is going to be fighting in front of a large crowd of Joshua’s British boxing fans on April 29 at Wembley Stadium. Wladimir has been generally fighting in front of his own fans in Germany or in the U.S during his pro career. He’s not had to deal with being in arenas and stadiums where his opponent had the majority of the fans in attendance. Wladimir also isn’t accustomed to being the underdog. He’s never been an underdog during his career.
Wladimir isn’t an underdog for no reason. The odds-makers are picking Joshua to win because he’s big, strong, young and capable of taking whatever punches he has to in order for him to win. Wladimir does not appear capable of taking even moderately hard punches. It’s going to be really difficult for Wladimir to win this fight unless he performs perfectly on April 29.
Wladimir will need to be mistake free in fighting the perfect fight to pull off an upset. He’ll also need to be able to take some hard head shots from Joshua. I don’t know that Wladimir can do that at this point. He never showed that he could take a hard blow to the head. Corrie Sanders knocked Wladimir out in just 2 rounds in their fight in 2003. Joshua isn’t as quick as Sanders was, but he’s still a very good fighter with a lot of power.