By Dan Ambrose: IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (54-3, 48 KO’s) has a new opponent for his next fight on September 11th when he faces an old nemesis former WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (34-3, 27 KO’s) at the Commerzbank-Arena, Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany. This was supposed to have been Alexander Povetkin’s fight, but he failed to sign the contract for the bout and also failed to show up for their first press conference to promote the fight. Wladimir and promotional company K2 complained to the IBF, who then allowed Klitschko to go with the number IBF #2 contender Peter.

Klitschko defeated Peter five years ago by a 12 round decision in 2005. In that fight, Wladimir badly staggered an overanxious Peter with a big left hook in the 11th round. Instead of going after Peter to try and finish him off, Wladimir played it safe and allowed Peter to escape the round. Wladimir later said that he wished he had gone after Peter to finish him off when he had him hurt. Well, Wladimir will get another chance at Peter on September 11th, and it will be interested to see if Wladimir will open up with the heavy artillery if he hurts Peter.

Vitali Klitschko, the older brother of Wladimir, battered Peter for eight one-sided rounds in October 2008 in a fight where Vitali stopped Peter and took his WBC heavyweight title. Peter was stopped in between rounds. However, Wladimir has more hand speed and power than his brother and if he opens up with his offense, he could end up hurting Peter and putting him down. Wladimir can’t make the mistake of allowing Peter to stay in the fight late, because Wladimir was knocked down three times by Peter in his fight with him.

It would be a bad idea for Wladimir not to jump on Peter if he can hurt him with a left hook or a fight hand, because Peter showed that he is still dangerous late in his fight.

Wladimir needs to focus on using his left hook more in the rematch with Peter. In the first fight, Wladimir didn’t throw any left hooks until he landed the big shot in the 11th that put Peter down. Most of the fight, Wladimir focused on throwing right hands and jabs. Peter was able to take the right hands without any problems. The right hands swelled up Peter’s face, but they failed to hurt him. Wladimir needs to use his left hook in the rematch, because that’s his best power punch and Peter seemed to have no clue how to stop it.

If Wladimir can set Peter up for the left hook early, I think he can put him down with it like last time. But in this case, Emanuel Steward, Wladimir’s trainer, needs to encourage Wladimir to go really go after Peter to try and end the fight once he’s hurt. Wladimir can’t play around and let him continue to fight for long, because he’s dangerous because of his looping punches that he likes to throw. Peter was able to throw a lot of shots that hit Wladimir in the back of the head in their first fight. It will likely happen again in their rematch unless Wladimir gets Peter out as fast as possible.