By Dave Lahr: This Saturday night, IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitsxchko (54-3, 48 KO’s) faces his most dangerous opponent in the past five years when he fights former World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (34-3, 27 KO’s) in a 12 round bout at the Commerzbank-Arena, in Frankfurt, Germany. Although the 34-year-old Klitschko has been acting uncharacteristically confident in the press conferences with Peter leading up to the fight, Peter’s manager Ivalylo Gotzev thinks Wladimir is trying to disguise his fear, saying “He’s definitely uptight. I’ve known Wladimir for 15 years and he’s starting to realize who will be in the other corner come Saturday night. That’s why he’s not himself this week. He’s already having cold and sweaty Nigerian Nightmares.”

I agree with Gotzev. I’ve never seen Wladimir act so bold, and he seems to be faking it. I can smell fear from the Ukrainian from a mile away. He’s acting scared and he has a good reason to. Samuel Peter is going to be taking his head off this Saturday night and taking both of Wladimir’s titles along with it. This is a fight that’s going to put Klitschko back into contender status and ruin any chances he might have had to make a big money fight with WBA heavyweight champion David Haye.

It is the beginning of the end for Wladimir. I see Peter giving Klitschko a serious whipping and hurting him so bad that Wladimir will be fragile and easily knocked out in future fights. The last time they fought in 2005, Klitschko had to run and clinch to save himself from being knocked out by Peter. As it was, Peter was still able to knock Wladimir down three times in the fight and had him out on his feet in the 10th round when the bell rang to end it. Had there been another 30 seconds in the round, there’s no way that Klitschko would have been able to finish the fight.

However, Klitschko recovered in between the 10th and 11th rounds, and was able to run and clinch in the last two rounds to preserve a victory. The referee never did a thing about Wladimir’s constant holding and left it pretty much up to Peter do either fight his way out of it or just take it. This time, Peter is going to give Wladimir a serious backside whipping every time the tall Ukrainian drapes himself over Peter to try and hold him. You can look for Wladimir to take some serious shots when he tries to grab the powerful Nigerian.

I suspect Klitschko won’t try to clinch a lot after Peter tags him a few times with some nice right hands and clubbing lefts while being held. I see this fight as being similar to Wladimir’s losses to Ross Puritty, Corrie Sanders and Lamon Brewster. Peter will hurt Wladimir with a big shot and then Wladimir will be staggering around the ring and trying desperately to hold on while Peter tags him with looping shots to the head. There’s no way Wladimir will get out of this fight on his feet.