By Eric Thomas: In a recent sparring video of World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (30-1, 23 KOs), he looks to be significantly overweight, perhaps as much as twenty pounds, for his title fight against former WBC title holder Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) next month at the O2 World Arena, Kreuzberg, in Berlin, Germany. In the video, Peter looked as if he has quite a ways to go before he’ll be in fighting shape for his October 11th fight. Although there’s still four weeks to go before the fight, it’s doubtful that Peter will be able to trim off all the lard by then without having to drastically starve himself to make it happen.

Peter, 28, looks as if he’s on course to come in well above his usual average of 250 lbs per fight, perhaps as high as 260. To date, the highest weight that Peter has come into a fight is 257, the weight that he fought James Toney at in their first fight in September 2006. For those who may not have seen the fight, Peter fought poorly, barely doing enough to defeat shorter, older Toney by a disappointing 12-round split decision. If not for his bigger size, as in muscle, not fat, more power and longer reach, Peter may have lost the fight to Toney.

Peter made sure that he didn’t make the same mistake twice by concentrating on bringing his weight down to a more manageable 249 for the second fight with Toney, which he easily won by a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision in January 2007.

To be sure, if Peter comes into his title bout with the 6’8″ Vitali Klitschko at anything but his best condition, Vitali may very well give him a boxing lesson and take his title from him. As it is, Peter is at a huge height and reach disadvantage going into the fight and it will take something big from him to turn it around. Vitali, though 37 and plagued by annoying injuries in the past four years, he knows how to box and use his size to his advantage. If Peter comes in looking badly out of shape, like a similar opponent of Vitali – Kirk Johnson – it may be a short night for Peter, in which he finds himself on the canvas.

Even under the best of circumstances, Peter often looks slightly overweight. However, he often destroys his opponents before his conditioning, or lack thereof, is exposed by his opponents. Against Vitali’s younger brother, Wladimir Klitschko, Peter gassed out often in the fight, fighting hard only sporadically in the fight. Due to Wladimir’s less than steel chin, Peter was able to keep the fight close by knocking Wladimir down three times, yet in the end it was Wladimir that won by a unanimous decision.

That’s pretty shocking that a fighter could knock down an opponent three times and still lose the fight, but it’s a clear indication of the lack of boxing skills – and conditioning – of Peter. He’s improved somewhat since then with his crude boxing ability, but he remains mostly a primitive slugger to this day. If his conditioning isn’t there, which would seem the case based on the video I’ve seen of him, he has only a slim chance of winning the fight.

He’ll need to jump all over Vitali in the 1st three rounds with an all out attack, hoping that he can catch the rusty Ukrainian with a big shot or two and take him out, or else he’ll likely be taken out himself by one of Vitali’s hard right hands. Peter’s style of fighting is perfectly suited for Vitali, who showed in his last fight, a win over Danny Williams in December 2004, a new weapon: a nice short uppercut that he can throw with either hand. Peter could find himself on the receiving end of these uppercuts if he doesn’t get lucky and take Vitali out himself in the first few rounds.