By Dan Ambrose: IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (54-3, 48 KO’s) and former World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (34-3, 27 KO’s) have agreed to a September 11th fight, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. The contract hasn’t yet been signed but it’s looking good. The fight will be held at the Commerzbank-Arena, Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany. Klitschko’s manager Bernd Boente says that the contract for Klitschko-Peter should be signed by this Thursday. Klitschko was supposed to be fighting number #1 ranked IBF heavyweight contender Alexander Povetkin (19-0, 14 KO’s).

However, Povetkin missed the first press conference for the fight and failed to sign the contract to fight Wladimir. Povetkin’s trainer Teddy Atlas reportedly felt that Povetkin wasn’t ready for the title shot against Wladimir at this time. It’s hard to imagine when the 30-year-old Povetkin will be ready, if not now. He might be missing out on a good payday that he may not see in the future if he gets beaten by one of the top contenders.

Klitschko, 34 has already fought Peter in the past, beating him by a 12 round decision five years ago in one of the most exciting fights of 2005. Peter was able to knock Wladimir down three times in the fight from clubbing shots that hit Wladimir in the back of the head. However, aside from the knockdowns, Peter was dominated by Wladimir in the other rounds of the fight and landed pretty much at will against Peter. In the 11th round, Wladimir stunned Peter with a big left hook to the head that had Peter staggering. Wladimir staggered Peter a second time in the round but was unable to finish him off because Wladimir played it safe.

Since that fight, Wladimir has improved immensely, beating his last nine opponents with eight of them coming by knockout.
For his part, Peter has struggled since the loss to Wladimir, in losing fights to Eddie Chambers and Vitali Klitschko. Peter has worked on his conditioning since the loss to Chambers and has looked good in stopping his last four opponents inside the distance.

Peter’s manager, Ivaylo, had this to say about the Klitschko fight: “We’re going [Thursday] morning to sign. We’re good to go. My prediction has always been the same if we got a rematch. This time we’re going to finish the job and not leave it to the judges’ scorecard. We are going into the lion’s den to take him out.” That may be easier said than done. Wladimir is very hard to beat when fighting in his adopted country of Germany, where he’s only suffered one defeat during his career.