By William Mackay: An exhausted WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (37-2, 36 KOs) took out his number #1 challenger Juan Carlos Gomez (44-2, 35 KOs) in the 9th round of a sloppy fight in Stuttgart, Germany. Klitschko, 37, looked exhausted by the 2nd round, clinching often and gasping for breath much of the time. However, in the 7th round he caught Gomez with a hard right hand that sent him to the canvas
Gomez, 35, whose right eye had been cut in the 5th round from one of Vitali’s many accidental head butts in the fight, was in trouble after the knockdown and barely escaped the round.
In the 8th and 9th rounds, Vitali battered a hurt Gomez at will with shots. After yet another head butt in the 9th by Vitali, which led to him being deducted a point, he seemed to be energized by it and immediately put Gomez down with two big right hands.
After the knockdown, Vitali tagged Gomez at will, following him around the ring trying to finish him off. Finally, he caught up to Gomez near the ropes and nailed him with a big left hook that had Gomez bending over at the waist. Vitali fired off one more left hand that shook Gomez. At that point, referee Daniel van de Wiele stepped in and halted the fight at 1:49 of the 9th.
Gomez landed the better shots in the opening round. After that, the fight got entirely sloppy with Vitali often ducking his head as Gomez would come forward, resulting in both fighters clashing heads. The cuts on both fighters were a product of that. I was alarmed to see Vitali already tired by the 3rd round, his mouth open, gasping for breath as if he had fought 12 rounds.
At that point, I had a sinking feeling that Vitali might end up quitting on his stool the same way he did against Byrd. Thankfully, he kept fighting and gained control over the bout using his jab. Gomez, due to his lack of height and reach, was entirely ineffective at landing anything at all until the 6th.
In the 6th and 7th, Gomez landed a few shots when he would charge forward. However, Vitali would shut him down immediately by employing a clinch. It seems as if his brother, Wladimir, is rubbing off on Vitali, because in the past Vitali never used to clinch at all, period. He does now.
In the 7th round, Vitali finally settled down enough to land a hard right hand that put Gomez down. However, he exhausted himself in trying to finish him off and looked really bad in missing countless punches. He needed to be more relaxed because he had a lot of time to finish him if he had placed his shots better. Gomez was exhausted, almost blind in his right eye from the cut over his right eye that opened as a result of a head butt from Vitali in the 5th.
The 8th was pretty much uneventful until the last few seconds of the round when Vitali opened up with some nice shots. He looked to have taken the round off, which was a bad idea because he had Gomez hurt at the end of the 7th.
As it turned out, it didn’t matter because after losing a point due to a head butt in the opening minute of the 9th, Vitali rammed home two right hands that sent Gomez down. After he got up, Juan was under heavy fire, and backed up to the ropes after getting hit with a big right hand.
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