By Scott Gilfoid: If WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko’s (37-2, 36 KOs) goal was to try and impress American audiences tonight with his 9th round stoppage over Juan Carlos Gomez (44-2, 35 KOs) in Stuttgart, Germany. I have to say he failed splendidly at achieving his goal. I don’t frankly care whether he got the win or not, he looked like utter garbage in winning the fight and if I was the top executive at HBO calling all the shots, I wouldn’t waste my sweet time in putting on Vitali against his next opponent, who at this point looks to be Oleg Maskaev.
Vitali, as most people expected, was too big for the former cruiserweight champion Gomez, and simply was able to lean backwards all night long while flicking jabs at the Cuban. Eventually, Gomez was taken out after getting nailed by two hard left hooks in the 9th, at which time the referee Daniel van de Wiele stopped the mismatch. Before it was over, Vitali had knocked Gomez down twice in the fight and had held onto his title.
But, I can’t say enough how poor Vitali looked tonight. He was backed up often by Gomez, a former cruiserweight with no power than Chris Byrd, and looked afraid of being hit by him. I don’t why, because Gomez isn’t the type of fighting that can knock anyone out with a single punch, yet Vitali constantly ran from him and looked scared when attacked.
Gomez did little himself other than coming forward and pushing his right hand out in front of him to prevent Vitali from landing shots. By the 6th, things were starting to look a little desperate for Gomez, as he had lost every round on my card and needed to start landing.
He did somewhat but not nearly enough to win the round. Vitali wasn’t doing much either, just jabbing and landing short right hands. He seemed to be handicapped by a lack of hand speed, and wasn’t able to mix it up as well as he did in the past against slower fighters.
Vitali looked a little better in the 7th, not breathing as hard and able to land some nice shots in the start of the round. He hit Gomez with two solid right hands that put Gomez down. He got up and was dealing with heavy fire for the next minute as Vitali tried to overwhelm him with punches.
Nothing came of it, though, largely because Vitali seemed to have lost all his senses and was just firing without aiming. The action was especially bad to watch in the last minute of the round because Vitali was just throwing shots without power, technique or aim and missing.
Gomez, who was cut over the right eye from a head butt from Vitali in the 5th, fought back hard in the 8th, tooth and nail, but he still wasn’t able to manage more than a few shots that got through Vitali’s guard. Gomez was often foiled by Vitali’s repeated clinching.
Indeed, I’ve never seen Vitali clinch so much in his life. He used to never do it, but maybe he’s been hanging around with Wladimir, his brother, too much and is now one of the best in that department. At the end of the 8th, Vitali seemed to hurt Gomez with a hard right hand that stunned Gomez briefly.
Going into the 9th, it looked dead certain that Gomez wouldn’t make it out of the 9th in one piece. His right eye was now almost swelled close, and he looked tired and undertrained, not ready to fight for a full 12 rounds. Though only 35, he might as well have been 105, the way he looked and fought.
In the opening of the 9th, Vitali landed a perfect head butt – one of many in the fight – hurting Gomez’s left eye, the only one that he could see out of. Gomez backed away in pain, while the referee Daniel van de Wiele did the right thing by taking away a point from Vitali. Now things were different.
Vitali had a look of a kid that had just had his toy car taken from him in the sandbox. He went after Gomez in a furious rage, hitting him with two hard right hands that put Gomez down for the second time in the fight. He got up, although he probably shouldn’t have if you ask me.
Vitali went after the tired, one-eyed fighter, hitting him at will with combinations as he followed him around the ring. He caught up to him and hit him with two left hooks that finished the job, stunning Gomez and causing the referee to step in and halt the fight at 1:49 of the round.
Vitali looked worse than any heavyweight champion I can ever remember seeing. Maybe it’s his age or the style of Gomez, but whatever the case, he looked terrible. I doubt he pleased anyone in America or anywhere else for that matter. I hate to say this, but I think Vitali needs to consider retirement. Either that, or kick Wladimir out of the way and beat up David Haye to get an easy payday before retiring.
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