By Jim Dower: Although HBO declined to show the upcoming September 11th fight title bout between 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), ESPN has stepped up to the plate and will be showing the fight live at 5 p.m. ET at the Commerzbank Arena, in Frankfurt, Germany, according to ESPN.

It’s great for boxing fans that ESPN was able to put the Klitschko-Peter fight on, because there have been a number of fans of Klitschko that were upset with the news that HBO wouldn’t show the Klitschko fight. Originally, Klitschko was going to fight Alexander Povetkin. However, he backed out of the fight, leaving the number #2 ranked IBF heavyweight contender Samuel Peter top step in.

But as it turns out, HBO may be making a huge mistake by not showing the fight, because if the Klitschko-Peter fight is anything like the first fight between them five years ago in 2005, the rematch should be an exciting fight worthy of HBO fights. In their previous fight, Peter dropped Klitschko three times but still ended up getting battered and out-boxed by a 12 round unanimous decision.

Since that fight, Wladimir has captured both the IBF and WBO heavyweight titles and defended the IBF title eight times. Peter has struggled until recently, winning his last three fights after losing to Wladimir’s older brother Vitali Klitschko in 2008.

Peter says “I had to wait a long time for the rematch. Now I will finish what I missed five years ago. This time I am going straight in and take him out. It’s not going to last real long.”

Peter had problems landing his shots last time out against Wladimir and only seemed to be successful when landing rabbit punches. It’s hard to tell what has changed since then. He still throws a lot of rabbit shots and if the referee is doing his job correctly, Peter could be losing points or facing disqualification if he throws too many rabbit shots this time out.

Wladimir needs to stay on the move constantly to avoid Peter’s looping shots because he still punches incredibly hard and Wladimir could find himself on the deck counting stars if Peter is able to connect with any of his big shots. However, if Klitschko can box Peter like he did in his last fight against Eddie Chambers, then Wladimir should easily win this one. Still, it will likely be exciting while it lasts.