By Chris Williams: World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (39-2, 37 KOs) stopped Polish challenger Albert Sosnowski (45-2-1, 27 KOs) in the 10th round on Saturday night at the Veltins Arena, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Klitschko, 38, fought at a leisurely pace, jabbing, faking and keeping the smaller, very limited Sosnowski on the outside for most of the bout.

Although Sosnowski continually tried to land his shots, at 6’2″, he was too short and not powerful enough, and too slow to do much. In the 10th round, Klitschko, tired of playing with Sosnowski, dropped him with a massive right hand. The referee Jay Nady then stopped the fight at that point. Sosnowski appeared to win only the 3rd round, even though he was fighting all out and Vitali seemed to be coasting for most of the fight.

The fight was incredibly dull until the 9th, when Vitali hurt Sosnowski with two hard right hands. Before that, Vitali seemed content to pick Sosnowski off with jabs as the Polish fighter plodded his way forward.

Fans of WBA heavyweight champion David Haye might get the impression that Vitali is ripe for the taking for Haye. However, Haye would likely do no better than Sosnowski because he wouldn’t have the height or the reach to land his shots. Hopefully, Haye gets confident after seeing this fight and wants to fight Vitali. I can see Haye getting his courage up after seeing this fight, because Vitali did look awfully slow against Sosnowski. However, Vitali was able to dominate just by sticking his long arms out, leaning back and slapping Sosnowski all night long. Pretty, it was not, but very effective in neutralizing Sosnowski, who is about the same height and weight as Haye.