By Chris Thomas: In looking around the heavyweight division, I’m having a hard time finding a heavyweight that has even a slight chance at beating International Boxing Federation heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (49-3, 44 KOs). Sure, there’s always a chance of a fighter like Samuel Peter or maybe Alexander Povetkin landing a lucky home run punch and knocking him out. However, I don’t see either of those fighters being able to really beat Klitschko, and if they did get a lucky KO, he would no doubt make adjustments and completely dominate either of them in a subsequent rematch that would quickly follow.

As of now, Wladimir is scheduled to fight WBO heavyweight champion Sultan Ibragimov on February 23rd, but Sultan doesn’t appear to have the style to beat him. Ibragimov fights mostly in a cautious style, which has helped him beat fighters like Shannon Briggs and Evander Holyfield. However, he rarely likes to mix it up, and instead comes in punching range lands fast shots and then gets away. Ibragimov also likes to counter punch, but I don’t see this working for him against Klitschko, since he doesn’t let shorter fighters like the 6’2″ Ibragimov get too many openings due to Klitschko’s style of fighting from the outside.

For the most part, Ibragimov will see a lot of jabs, left hooks and an occasional right hand. His only chance to counter Wladimir will be win he throws a right hand, but Wladimir usually waits to throw them until he has his opponent looking for the jab. Once they’re focused exclusively on the jab, he comes with the right hand directly behind it, and it has a huge effect because his opponent is blinded by the initial jab. The right hand that comes after it is that much more dangerous because of the fact that his opponent fails to ever see it coming.

For Ibragimov to be successful against Klitschko, he has little choice but to try and come inside and pressure him, like Lamon Brewster did in his bout with Wladimir. Ibragimov doesn’t have the size or the long arms that Ross Puritty and Corrie Sanders have, so he won’t be able to stand on the outside and trade with Wladimir on Equal terms.

Tony Thompson, the #1 ranked WBO heavyweight, is perhaps the best of the American heavyweights, and the only one with enough size to fight Klitschko from the outside. At 6’5″, and with abnormally long arms, Thompson has enough reach to give Wladimir problems. Thompson’s jab is probably the best thing that he has going for him. This is what he mainly uses to beat up smaller fighters, like Dominic Guinn and Luan Krasniqi, who were unable to get past his jab to land their own shots.

Unfortunately, Thompson has little power, and if he gets into a battle with Wladimir, who has an even better jab than Thompson’s, he’ll have problems. Once Wladimir begins opening up with his powerful left hook, straight right hand combination, it will be curtains for Thompson. His only chance would be to try and take Wladimir out with something, but the problem is that Thompson is too light-hitting to test Wladimir’s chin.

Samuel Peter, World Boxing Council interim champion, would appear to have the best chance of beating Wladimir. In his past battle with Klitschko in 2005, Peter was able to knock Wladimir down three times and had him on the verge of being knocked out. The problem with Peter, however, is that he lost every round except for the rounds that he knocked Wladimir down, and took a terrible beating in the process. Some people point to this fight as the reason for Peter being knocked down multiple times by Jameel McCline in his last fight, suggesting that Peter’s chin was – ability to take a punch – was damaged by a big left hook that Wladimir nailed Peter with in the 12th round of their fight. The punch badly staggered Peter, and he was hit with several big right hands that further staggered him. Previous to this, Peter has always had an iron chin, and a reputation of being almost unstoppable. Though Wladimir failed to pursue Peter and try for a knockout, the damage was done to Peter in this fight, some people say.

Ruslan Chagaev, WBA heavyweight champion. At 29, Chagaev has looked mediocre in his last several bouts, beating both John Ruiz and Nikolay Valuev by questionable decisions. Most recently, Chagaev looked horrible against 40 year-old Matt Skelton, winning an ugly wrestling-type bout, with a ton of clinches. Only 6’1,” and overweight and slow, Chagaev doesn’t appear to have the size, speed, power or reach to land effectively against a large heavyweight like Klitschko. I don’t see Chagaev as even being a champion, much less having any chance at beating Klitschko. He would get nailed by right hands and jabs all fight long, and would likely get stopped by Wladimir if they were to meet. Chagaev, though, would try for a knockout, but he just doesn’t have the reach or the power to KO top notch heavyweights like Wladimir. I don’t see Chagaev holding onto his title for much longer.

Alexander Povetkin, 28, the mandatory for the IBF heavyweight title, is coming off a disappointing performance against Eddie Chambers last Saturday night. His conditioning is being called into question, for he looked badly fatigued by the midpoint of the fight, and looked very hittable as the fight progressed. He tended to come at Chambers in a straight line, showing no ability to move around the ring or use angles. Zero head movement on his part, and very much there to be hit. This would be a slaughter for Wladimir, probably similar to his 1st round KO of former Olympian Paea Wolfgramm early in Wladimir’s career.