By Jim Dower: U.S. boxing fans will still get a chance to see the September 11th title fight between IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (54-3, 48 KO’s) and former WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (34-3, 27 KO’s). ESPN will be showing the fight to U.S. audiences. HBO opted not to air this fight for some reason. It’s unfortunate but thankfully, ESPN has decided to come in and take up the slack and show the fight to Americans. It might not reach quite as many people as it would have if it had been shown by HBO, because ESPN likely won’t be advertising it as much as HBO would have done under the similar circumstances.

The fight will be taking place in Germany at the Commerzbank-Arena, Frankfurt, Hessen. Klitschko, 34, fought Peter in the past five years ago and beat him by a 12 round unanimous decision in one of the most exciting fights of 2005. Klitschko believes that their rematch could end up equally as exciting, although he intends on trying to win the fight as fast as possible this time. It’s likely that Klitschko’s trainer, Emanuel Steward, has stressed to him how important it is to try and get the hard hitting Peter out of there as fast as possible to make sure that he’s not still around late in the fight trying to knock Wladimir’s head off.

Peter, 29, was still very dangerous late in their previous fight and was able to knock Wladimir down in the 10th and it looked like Wladimir was fortunate to survive that knockdown because it came at the very end of the round and he was hurt. When Peter was attacking hard, Wladimir looked in danger at all times. Many boxing fans believe that Wladimir has improved greatly since the first fight with Peter and think this will help him win this fight easily.

But Wladimir really hasn’t faced any real punchers in the past five years like Peter, so you can’t be sure what will happen in a rematch between Klitschko and Peter. Samuel has improved as well in the past year, and has won four consecutive fights since losing to Vitali Klitschko and Eddie Chambers. The biggest improvement in Peter’s game is his conditioning. He’s never been in this kind of shape before in his career, even at the very start of his career. He’s a lot leaner and moves much better than he did before. His maneuverability could be big problems for Wladimir if Peter is able to cut off the ring on him and land his big shots.