By Chris Williams: Big 6’8″ Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) will be coming out of his four-year retirement to try and recapture his WBC heavyweight title from Nigerian knockout artist Samuel Peter (30-1, 23 KOs) on October 11th, at the O2 World Arena, Kreuzberg, in Berlin, Germany. At this point, there’s a lot of speculation about whether or not the often-injured Vitali will be able to make it into the fight, and there’s already more than a few boxing experts that are predicting that he’ll suffer another major injury, causing the fight to be canceled. With a history of serious injuries to his left shoulder, knee and most recently his back, Vitali is someone that has to be watched very closely while in training to try and avoid aggravating any of his many old injuries.

However, if he can somehow hold together long enough to make it into the fight, he may prove to be more than a handful for Peter, a crude slugger with only limited boxing skills. Vitali’s huge eight-inch height advantage would obviously work in his favor, as would the fact that he has lost very few rounds during his career. He’s a fighter with superb boxing skills, perhaps even better than his little brother Wladimir, but due to his numerous injuries during his career, Vitali has been unable to fulfill the promise that he showed earlier in his career when he build up an impressive 27 straight victories and just as many knockouts.

At 37, and after four years out of the ring without any tune-ups, it remains to be seen how much Vitali will have left of his once great skills. To be sure, he will probably look good early in the fight, landing well with hooks and uppercuts against the shorter Peter, but after the 6th round, around the time that he previously used to tire while in his prime, he may find himself in an uncomfortable situation against the younger, 27 year-old Peter.

Say what you will about Peter’s mostly average boxing skills, he fights hard up until the end, sustaining his power and capable of punching with authority even into the 12th round. If he can keep pressuring Vitali hard into the second half of the fight, we may see Vitali wilt again, like he did against Chris Byrd in his 9th round stoppage loss in April 2000, and we may see Vitali quit. In the Byrd fight, Vitali quit began of a shoulder injury, but against Peter, we may see a quit job more from a combination of fatigue and due to the tremendous amount of punishment he may end up taking from Peter.

It’s one thing to look good and keep in shape all these years, but it’s quite another thing to step in the ring after all this time and have to fight what will likely turn into a grueling battle with a fighter that is capable of taking his head off with every punch. I think we may end up seeing another repeat of Lamon Brewster vs. Wladimir, in which after Brewster landed several big left hooks, Wladimir suddenly looked sick to his stomach, tasting the canvas and having to be helped around the ring like a seasick sailor afterwards.

I hope I’m wrong about this, because I’ve always liked Vitali as a fighter, but I think this is how things are going to end up. If he were to have hit four or five tune-ups, I’d give him a good chance to beat Peter, that is, if he looked good in his tune-ups and not washed up. However, to go straight from a four-year layoff into a title fight with a puncher as dangerous and tough as Peter, is almost suicidal.