By Matt Stein: Last weekend, IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Kitschko (53-3, 48 KO’s) easily defeated yet another challenger in Ruslan Chagaev by a 9th round knockout in front of a huge 60,000 boxing fans at the Veltins Arena, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. The ease with which Wladimir dispatched Chagaev was more than a little impressive, because Wladimir dominated every facet of the fight without getting nary a scratch from the 30-year-old Chagaev, who before this fight was considered number #3 in the world.
Now Wladimir may not have the best of chins as evidenced by his three knockout losses on his resume to Ross Purity, Corrie Sanders and Lamon Brewster, but it’s not easy to accomplish what those fighters did with Wladimir, because the huge 6’7” Ukrainian has so drastically changed how he fights nowadays.
In the distance past, Wladimir was known for having one of the best jabs in the sport, but he failed to use it consistently in his fights even though it would save him from taking punishment. Instead, Wladimir would only sparingly throw his jab and focused more on trying to take out his opponents as fast as possible with his powerful left hook and right hand combination.
In most cases, Klitschko was able to knock his opponents out before they got to his weak chin. However, Wladimir ran into trouble first against the steel chinned Purity, who wasn’t in the least bothered by Wladimir’s big punches in their bout in 1998.
In turn, Purity kept pressuring Wladimir with shots until he wore him down and took him out in the 11th round. Wladimir never attempted to get revenge for this loss, and instead let his brother Vitali partially avenge the defeat by taking Purity out in an 11th round knockout, and giving him a severe beating.
Vitali fought the way that Wladimir should have done, using his jab, moving slowly and landing short hooks to the head. Vitali didn’t run around the ring like Wladimir did, hence Vitali didn’t have a problem of running out of gas against Purity. Wladimir then made the same mistake against knockout artist Corrie Sanders five years later in 2002, losing by a 2nd round knockout.
Again, Wladimir made the mistake of throwing power punches and not using his jab. Sanders took advantage of Wladimir’s willingness to trade with him by first stunning him with a big left hand, and then moments later putting Wladimir down when the two got close for a clinch. Like in the 7th round when Wladimir was nailed while in close with Chagaev, Sanders blasted Wladimir with a big right hand while Wladimir had his guard down trying to tie up.
In Wladimir’s bout with Lamon Brewster a year later, Wladimir went out trying to knock Brewster out with power shots and again failed to use his jab. Wladimir came close to stopping Brewster in the 4th after putting him down with a series of monstrous shots. However, in going for the knockout, Wladimir exhausted himself in the process.
In the next round, Brewster took advantage of Wladimir’s state of fatigue by knocking him out with several huge hooks to the head. This was the first fight for Wladimir with his new trainer Emanuel Steward. Obviously, Steward’s new training program had failed to sink in. However, after that fight, Wladimir no longer went toe to toe with his opponents, and tended to use his jab much more often.
Wladimir did have a close call against DaVarryl Williamson in his fight bout after the Brewster fight, in which Williamson knocked Wladimir down with a big right hand in the 4th. Wladimir made the mistake of trying to trade shots with Williamson and got dropped.
After this fight, Wladimir has never been the same, and has been much more devoted to using his jab alone to win his fights. Wladimir has since leaned to fight on the outside, jab and tie up his opponents when they get in close.
Right now, there’s probably not a heavyweight that stands below 6’7” that has any chance of beating Wladimir. David Haye, Alexander Povetkin, two of the heavyweight division’s best fighters, don’t have the size to get in close to Wladimir without taking an enormous amount of punishment while on the way in. The one with the best chance of beating Wladimir, David Haye, doesn’t have the chin to take the kind of shots that Wladimir would be dishing out while Haye would be coming in.
Comments are closed.