By Jason Kim: Former WBC heavyweight champion (35-2, 34 KOs) may be barking up the wrong tree when he takes on the dangerous WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (30-1, 23 KOs) on Saturday night at the O2 World Arena, in Berlin, Germany. “Vitali Klitschko is trying to take my title belt from me. He tried to take it out of my hands at the press conference, but I snatched it from him. It is mine! He is a phony who is messing with my career and my life, said the 28 year-old Peter, making his thoughts known loud and clear about Vitali, who has been given the status of WBC emeritus champion.

This effectively placed Klitschko at the head of the line for a gift title shot against Peter without having to work his way into a fight with him. This isn’t exactly fair to the other fighters in the division, who have worked hard to get where they are. Nevertheless, things will probably be put right anyway considering that Klitschko is only doing himself a disservice by facing Peter without fighting his way into the position like normal fighters. Even former heavyweight champion George Foreman realized the importance of tune-up matches and working slowly back to the top, which is what he did after making his own comeback in the 90s after being away from the sport for a decade.

Vitali hasn’t been away for nearly as long, some people might say, but four years is a considerable amount of time for most fighters. It seems curious why Vitali would choose not to fight at least two or three fighters before taking on Peter, or whoever the WBC champion is. Vitali, now 37, is a complete unknown at this point and the only thing that we’ve seen of him, besides his photos which show him with graying hair, is some recent video footage of him in which he looks slow as he hits the mitts of his trainer Fritz Sdunek.

With as much time off as Vitali has had, he could very well be blown on in the first or 2nd round by Peter. I personally think Vitali will last at least until the 4th, but that’s about as far as I see him going. His stamina and hand speed won’t be there for him, and he’ll be totally exhausted by that point in the fight, susceptible to any of Peter’s big shots. This fight reminds me a lot of the bout between Jack Johnson and James J. Jeffries which took place in 1910. In that fight, Jeffries, then 35, was making a return to boxing after a six-year retirement.

As it turned out, it was a bad decision by Jeffries to make a comeback because he was dominated throughout the fight, getting knocked down twice and eventually stopped in the 15th round. I see the same thing happening, only Vitali will be knocked out much earlier by Peter. Jack Johnson was a great fighter, but not a particularly big puncher like Peter. Like Jeffries, Klitschko should have stayed retired and stuck to something safe, like his K2 East Promotional company or his running for public office in Kiev.