Klitschko vs. Peter: Will Samuel knock Wladimir out this time?

By Boxing News - 08/09/2010 - Comments

Image: Klitschko vs. Peter: Will Samuel knock Wladimir out this time?By Dave Lahr: It’s been five years since Samuel Peter (34-3, 27 KO’s) last fought IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (54-3, 48 KO’s) back in September 2005. On that occasion, the still very green Peter came incredibly close to knocking Klitschko out in the 11th round after knocking him down for the third time in the fight with a clubbing right hand to the head. Wladimir got up and on shaky legs was able to survive the remainder of the round by clinching and running. Now five years later, Wladimir has dominated his last nine opponents, beating all of them and knocking out all but one. None of them, however, have been big punchers in the class of Peter. Wladimir has proven in the past to be pretty much invincible when facing fighters that don’t have big power, but if you put Wladimir in with a puncher, bad things can happen.

I think Wladimir is drunk his past success against his light hitting opposition and is taking Peter way too lightly. Klitschko needs to sit down and re-watch his fight with Peter from five years ago to see how lucky he got to win the fight. I don’t see anything having changed since then other than Klitschko getting older. Peter, if anything, is better than he was back then. Peter was a chunky looking 244 the last time Klitschko fought him. Now Peter has dedicated himself to training and staying trim and is now weighing around 237. Peter is quicker and a lot more agile than he was last time Klitschko fought him.

Peter is still young at 29, and is in the prime of his career right now. On September 11th, Klitschko will be facing Peter in a rematch at the Commerzbank-Arena, in Frankfurt, Germany. It’s going to be a huge crowd in attendance of at least 50,000 to watch the Klitschko-Peter rematch, but I think it’s going to be a bad night for Klitschko unless he’s been working his wheels and plans on running for the full 12 rounds. Last time, Klitschko came in the fight with Peter weighing a slender 243 and was ready and in shape to run the entire fight.

But Peter still caught up to Wladimir and was able to knock him down three times in the fight, and that’s with Wladimir running for his life in every round and clinching for all he was worth. I think Wladimir is going to try the exact same thing in their rematch on September 11th. But I don’t think it’s going to work well for Wladimir this time, partly because Wladimir is older now and won’t be able to stay on the run for 12 rounds like last time against Peter. Since that fight, Peter has become better at dealing with fighters that try to clinch him and is able to fight through the clinches and keep fighting.

Wladimir is going to try and stifle Peter’s offense by grabbing him 10+ times per round to keep him from throwing punches. However, Peter is going to keep fighting Wladimir while being clinched and will land his shots wherever he can. If Wladimir is holding him, Peter will throwing to the body, throw uppercuts, and maybe even a few rabbit shots to get Wladimir to let go of him. Sooner or later, Wladimir is going to figure out that it doesn’t pay off to try and clinch Peter and will have no other choice but to either brawl with him for 12 rounds or run like a rabbit. I suspect Wladimir will run like a rabbit until he tires out and is forced to fight Peter in the trenches. At that point, I think Peter will probably knock Wladimir out quite fast.



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