By Dave Lahr: It’s been almost exactly five years since Wladimir Klitschko defeated Samuel Peter by a grueling 12 round decision at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. On that fateful night on September 24th, 2005, Wladimir was knocked down three times by the powerful Peter and incredibly fortunate to escape with a 12 round decision win. Luck was on Wladimir’s side in that fight, as the referee allowed him to clinch Peter throughout the night to keep the terrifying Nigerian puncher from landing his crushing blows. The clinching did it’s work and allowed for Wladimir to escape with the win.

However, the referee probably should have taken off multiple points from Wladimir because the Ukrainian heavyweight was diving in to grab Peter frequently, and blatantly showing that Wladimir was trying to keep him from hitting back. For a fighter with better skills at defeating Wladimir’s clinches, it would have been an easy task of simply beating Wladimir up each time he made an attempt to clinch. But Peter was a young 24 at the time, and this was the first time he had ever fought anyone that focused so intensely on clinching in every round.

Peter ended up chasing a constant fleeing Wladimir around the ring for most of the bout, looking to land his big shots. Peter did have success despite Wladimir’s constant running and clinching, because Peter did end up knocking Wladimir to the canvas three times. However, Peter’s success would have been so much better had Wladimir been prevented from constantly clinching.

The running from Wladimir had him weak, and his brittle chin was exposed as well by Peter’s big shots. Now we’re five years into the future and Wladimir is older and Peter is a lot wiser to Wladimir’s ways. He knows what to expect from Wladimir and is obviously putting together the perfect plan on how to defeat him this time. It’s going to be a lot easier for Peter, because fighters like Wladimir that do a lot of clinching are incredibly vulnerable when they finally meet up with a fighter that knows how to defeat a clinch. The secret to stopping a fighter that likes to clinch is to batter them even while being held.

Sooner or later, they’ll stop clinching altogether if you hit them hard enough. I suspect that this is what Peter will be doing when Wladimir tries to use him as a resting post all night. Peter is going to land shots to the side of Wladimir’s head, his midsection and wherever he can land his punches. The only way that Wladimir can escape from this torture is to stay on the run the whole time, and we already know that his stamina won’t allow him to keep moving for the 12 rounds without betraying him like it did against Peter in their previous fight. So, the secret for Peter is to blast Wladimir in the clinch, make him run around the ring all night using up his energy, and then corner him and take him out in brutal fashion.