By Dave Lahr: Trainer Emanuel Steward is concerned about how much improvement former World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (34-3, 27 KO’s) has made in the past year and Steward is hoping that his fighter IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (54-3, 48 KO’s) can beat Peter on September 11th at the Commerzbank-Arena, Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany. Steward is wise to see how much improvement that Peter has made recently. Just one look at the difference in his physique is enough to tell you that this isn’t the same Peter.

In the past, Peter often looked at least 20 pounds overweight at 250 but now he’s fighting in the 230s and looking sculpted and very powerful. He’s lost the weight and yet is even more powerful than he was before. That’s bad news for Wladimir, because he went life and death with Peter five years ago and barely escaped with a 12 round decision win.

Steward, speaking about the Klitschko-Peter fight, says “I’m a little bit more on edge,” according to Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated. I bet Steward is. We are likely going to be seeing a new heavyweight champion on September 11th with Peter taking Wladimir’s titles in a knockout win. Wladimir doesn’t have any tricks he can pull this time to get the win.

If he wants to beat Peter, he’s going to have to get in the trenches with him and beat man against man. Wladimir won’t be able to clinch or run his way to victory this time, because Peter is ready for him if he tries both of those tactics. That’s going to be the real difference in this fight. Wladimir’s chin is going to have to be able to take Peter’s monstrous shots for 12 rounds unless Wladimir can knock Peter out early.

Wladimir has only one way he can win this fight and that’s if he goes out there and tries to get Peter before he gets him. I don’t see that happening. He’s not going to knock Peter out and his chin won’t be able to take Peter’s sledgehammer shots without betraying him. Wladimir may try and retreat when the fight starts turning badly for him, but Peter will cut off and blast him out.

The last thing I see Wladimir trying to do is clinch to try and stop Peter. That won’t work, because Peter is going to continue to slug the stuffing out of Wladimir the entire time he’s being held by him. This is going to end really badly for Wladimir, but at least we’ll have a new heavyweight champion. I can see HBO wanting to show Peter’s fights because he’s such an exciting fighter.