By Dave Lahr: After all these years, IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitscchko (54-3, 48 KO’s) will finally be facing a puncher when he steps in the ring tonight against former WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (34-3, 27 KO’s) at the Commerzbank-Arena, Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany. It’s been five years since Peter last fought Wladimir and nearly knocked him out. Tonight, Peter will finish the business that he started in their fight in 2005. In that fight, Wladimir was about as close as you can come to being knocked out without it being called on, when he was knocked down in the 10th and was staggering around the ring like a bird that could no longer fly.

Peter didn’t finish him off in that fight, largely because of all the clinching that Wladimir did. The clinching made the fight almost unwatchable. The only real interesting parts of the fight was when Peter was letting his hands go and knocking Wladimir to the canvas over and over again. Tonight, I expect Wladimir to taste the canvas many times before it’s finally stopped in around the 6th.

Peter hits too hard and will be ready for the tricks that Wladimir will be trying to pull. It’s pretty clear what Wladimir will be trying to do to keep from getting knocked out by Peter. He’s going to be jabbing, moving, and leaning back and throwing right hands and left hooks. But mostly, you can expect a lot of clinching and running from Wladimir. Those will be the main tools that Wladimir uses to try and stay upright without getting knocked out by Peter.

It won’t work this time, believe me. Peter isn’t going to be stopped by Wladimir’s clinching and whether the referee steps and does his job by stopping Wladimir from clinching nonstop, it won’t matter. Peter is going to pound Wladimir every time he gets grabbed by the big 6’6” Ukrainian. Peter won’t let Wladimir clinch his way to victory this time. In their last fight, Wladimir clinched more than 10 times per round. That may not seem like a high number but when you consider that those clinches came often after Wladimir land a shot, it had the effect of keeping Peter from firing back.

Peter looks to come back immediately with his own shots after he’s hit. However, with Wladimir diving in and immediately grabbing Peter after throwing a punch, it kept Peter from throwing his own punches. The referee should have done his job by taking points away from Wladimir for his constant clinching, but he failed to do so. Tonight, it will be Peter who takes matters into his own hands by teaching Wladimir to keep his arms off of him.

Peter is going to be hitting Wladimir with short, power shots every time Wladimir seeks to clinch and making sure that Wladimir doesn’t repeat his fight stalling tactics. Without clinching, Wladimir stands no chance of winning and will quickly get knocked out. At the most, I see this fight going around six rounds, and no more than that. Wladimir’s chin is too fragile, and Peter’s shots are much too powerful for Wladimir to last longer than six.