By Aaron Klein: It’s been eight years since Chris Byrd made Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) quit on his stool after the 9th round and although a lot of time has gone by, I don’t think that Vitali has ever settled doubts in the minds of many boxing fans whether he’s got a yellow streak up his back or not. For those who may not have seen Vitali’s infamous fight against Byrd, it took place on April 1st, 2000, a fight that Vitali was doing well in for the first six rounds or so. He appeared to be easily controlling the fight, using his jab and right hand combinations to keep Byrd limited to mostly defending on the outside.

Byrd, however, started coming on in the 7th round, walking down Vitali and hitting him with good left hand shots to the head and body. At the time of the fight, Vitali had a ridiculously inflated record of 27-0, with 27 knockouts, virtually all of which came at the expense of lower echelon fighters. Vitali had never faced anyone that could fight back like Byrd, and when suddenly Vitali found himself taking head shots in the 7th round, he looked uncomfortable, stressed and confused. He looked like a classic case of a fighter whose game plan had gone down the drain, and didn’t have a backup plan to fall back on.

The fight took place in Berlin, Germany, Vitali’s adopted home, meaning that he was fighting in front of a large home crowd. That usually meant that Vitali could be assured having a lot of cheering for him regardless of how he was doing in the fight. A funny thing happened, though. The crowd, originally on Vitali’s side, started cheering and encouraging Byrd beginning in the 7th round, shouting like crazy each time Byrd would hit Vitali with a good shot. Byrd began smiling, looking relaxed, making Vitali miss with his big right hand shots, and stinging him with fast left hands to the head.

This continued in both the 8th and 9th rounds, with Vitali looking depressed and frustrated at not being able to hit Byrd with his big slow shots. After the 9th round, Vitali looked like he was in deep depression, and after a minute of consolation with his trainer Fritz Sdunek, in which Vitali said “it hurts too much,” the fight was stopped.

Vitali would later claim that he injured his left shoulder early in the bout, and couldn’t continue fighting due to the immense pain he felt each time he would try and throw a punch or block one of Byrd’s shots. Some fans, however, never really believed Vitali’s excuse, despite him having photos taken of himself in a hospital bed sent to a number of boxing sites.

Injury or no injury, it looked as if Byrd was on the verge of stopping Vitali if the fight had been continued into the 10th rounds. Byrd wanted Vitali’s WBO heavyweight title, and was looking strong and scoring a lot of head shots. I have no doubts that if the fight had continued, Byrd probably would have taken Vitali out in the 10th or possibly the 11th, at the latest. The point of all this is, what will happen if Vitali finds himself in a similar situation against Samuel Peter on Saturday night.

Once a fighter has quit before, sometimes it becomes easier the second time around when things get tough again for them. The fight will be taking place again in Berlin, Germany, and once again against a smaller fighter than Vitali. Peter is stubborn, and will be trying to walk Vitali down throughout the fight. Will Vitali decide to take a knee or stay on the stool if the pain of Peter’s shots become too unbearable for him to take anymore?

It’ll be interesting to find out, because Vitali will definitely be feeling a lot of pain in his 37 year-old body, both from his old injuries and from the big shots that Peter will be hitting him with. At his age, just moving his body around for 12 rounds is going to be painful for him, as he’ll be dealing with the pain of exhaustion. That’s something Vitali hadn’t had to feel for four long years during which times he’s been retired.

Now, Vitali will have to experience all these pains at once while trying to survive against a young fighter that is literally trying to decapitate him. More than anyone can imagine, Peter is angry with Vitali for the gamesmanship he showed while leading up to the fight. At this point, Peter will probably be trying to plant Vitali with every punch thrown, hitting him harder than he’s ever hit an opponent before. That can’t be a good thing for Vitali. I honestly hope Vitali doesn’t quit, that if he does get taken out, he goes out the honorable way by being stopped in the traditional fashion. However, knowing that humans are creatures of habit, I won’t be surprised if Vitali once again quits on his stool in between rounds of the fight. I hope he doesn’t, but what can you do?