Photo courtesy of Klitschko Management – By William Mackay: Whatever the fighter that Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) may have been four years ago, that fighter is probably long gone. Vitali, 37, sporting a lot of gray hair, although still looking almost the same physically, will probably be a shadow of himself on Saturday night against WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter. At one time, Vitali Klitschko was one of the premier sluggers in the heavyweight division, a fighter that could take out most opponents he faced with his hard chopping right hand and powerful hooks. It would be nice if he could still fight in the manner against Peter, because the boxing public would have a great fight in store for them.
However, Vitali will be a different fighter because of his time away from the ring (his last fight was in December 2004 against Danny Williams), and will have to either come up with some different fight plans or risk getting taken out by Peter. There’s little chance that Vitali will be able to beat Samuel if he stands and trades with him for 12-rounds, because Peter hits too hard and will have a good chance of connecting with something big and taking Vitali out, or possibly cutting him around the eyes like Vitali was against Lewis.
There’s a lot of scar tissue around Vitali’s left eye from his fight with Lewis, and it would only take a matter of a certain amount of hard shots from Peter, thus creating a new cut. Vitali would seem to stand the best chance at winning by trying to move around the ring as much as possible, clinching Peter at every opportunity.
Wladimir Klitschko, Vitali’s younger brother, used moved and clinching quite effectively against Peter in 2005, which prevented the Nigerian from teeing off on a stationary target. Vitali’s legs, though, probably aren’t ready to support him in a 12-round bout that involves a lot of movement on his part. This means that Vitali is going to have to stop and fight Peter frequently in order for Vitali to rest his weary thirty-seven year old legs.
As often as Vitali will probably need rest breaks, it would be in his best interest if he could try and clinch as much as possible so as to minimize the number of big shots that Peter nails him with. While I have full faith in Vitali being able to take any big shot that Peter can dish out, unfortunately, I can’t say the same thing about Vitali’s skin. He rarely gets hit in most of his fights, yet in a few of them he’s puffed up early around the eyes while only getting hit a handful of times.
Vitali, a fighter who prides on himself on his slugging power, has never used clinching much in any of his bouts. In fact, only in his fight with Lennox Lewis, a 6th round TKO loss in 2003, did Vitali clinch his opponent. Even then, he only did it in the last two rounds when he started getting nailed by huge uppercuts from Lewis. Ideally, though, Vitali needs to try and use his reach and stay away at all costs.
He can tag Peter with jabs and straight rights from the outside without putting too much risk on himself. The thing to avoid is getting caught on the ropes like Wladimir did, allowing Peter to catch him and pin him to the ropes with big shots. Peter does well against opponents that he can trap against the ropes. Vitali sometimes used to fight with anger in his earlier fights, something which didn’t hurt him as he was able to score knockouts and knockdowns when fighting angry. In this case, however, one would hope that he can keep his emotions under control and fight smart and avoid fighting a war with Peter.
If he fights toe-to-toe with the younger, 28-year-old Peter, then it will be putting Vitali at a great disadvantage because he’s older and has been totally inactive in the past four years. Vitali needs to try and conserve strength as much as possible, because he never was a fighter with great stamina earlier in his career, and I can’t imagine that four years of inactivity has helped him in this area. In the training videos before the fight, Vitali has been seen focusing on throwing short, fast combinations, somewhat like the type of quick short punches that Floyd Mayweather Jr. used to throw before retiring. If this is the case, it looks as if he’s looking at the likelihood of Peter crowding him a lot and giving him little room to throw his big windup shots.
He’s going to have to be ready to pull back at a moment’s notice, though, to avoid Peter’s big telegraphed shots. If he doesn’t, Peter will take his head off with one of his big hooks. Peter will probably fight the way he always does, namely by rushing forward hard and trying to maul Vitali with big shots at close range. Peter believes in firing back with hard shots when he’s hit, so if Vitali starts out quick in the fight, the chances of this fight turning into a slugfest will increase dramatically. Clearly, Vitali will have to have several different strategies working for him if he hopes to defeat Peter on Saturday night.
In the old days, Vitali could have just gone out and chopped Peter down with a series of hard right hands in the early rounds, but he doesn’t have the stamina to fight like that anymore and will have to conserve his strength somehow. He doesn’t have the stamina to stand in front of Peter for the full 12 rounds, trying to out-punch the tough Nigerian knockout artist. As much as I’d like to see Vitali fight well, and show some of his old skills, I think his age and ring rust will be too much for him to overcome on Saturday against Peter. If Vitali can’t score a quick knockout, then Peter will wear him down over the course of the bout and take him out by the 7th or 8th rounds with some big shots to the head.