By Mark Hepplestall: Vitali Klitschko is a Ukrainian Boxer who holds the WBC world heavyweight title; his 42 fight record consists of 40 won, 38 by KO and lost 2 by TKO due to cuts. His most notable fights include victories over Corrie Sanders, Vaughn Bean and Danny Williams and most infamous, a loss to Lennox Lewis on cuts when Vitali was winning on points.

After the Danny Williams fight, Vitali Klitschko retired for 4 years, before making a comeback for his WBC title then held by the Nigerian Nightmare Samuel Peter, on 11 October 2008 at the O2 World Arena, in Berlin, Germany. Klitschko dominated Peter for 8 rounds, in which he won all rounds on two judge scorecards and 7 rounds on the third judges scorecard. That judge was then heckled out of the arena due to disbelief that Samuel Peter did enough to win a round. On 21 March Vitali, defeated Juan Carlos Gomez by TKO in the ninth round. Once again, Vitali won every round and seemed like he could take Gomez out at any point. Looking more closely at the above two performances, Vitali won all rounds by using a great left jab constantly when Peter or Gomez tried to mount any type of attack. Also, his tendency to lean backwards out of the oppositions range is a major factor to him winning rounds. This combination of left jab, using his superior size and leaning back gives him an almost bulletproof defence that could only be penetrated by a boxer with vastly superior speed were they could get in, land shots before Vitali has a chance to lean back or land a jab and then retreat out of range. Unfortunately there are not many or any heavyweights that have that kind of speed, possibly including the likes of ”Fast” Eddie Chambers, and David Haye.

Klitschko’s next two fights were very worrying, first against American Chris Arreola, who he did beat comfortably, yet did give away 2 rounds which is unheard of for Vitali as of late. Plus, Arreola I saw him as more of an American Hype job then a real sensation, When I look at Arreola, I just see a one dimensional boxer and after seeing him lost to Vitali, I still think the same thing. Klitschko had great stamina in the Arreola fight, unlike Arreola. Eventually, Arreola’s corner threw in the towe,l knowing he couldn’t get close enough to do any damage. The worrying areas to look at in this fight was Arreola’s lack of speed. However, maybe his need to jab and keep moving made him tired and his speed suffered towards the end.

On 12 December 2009, Kevin Johnson took on Klitschko, but Kevin only looked to be trying to survive the whole 12 rounds to be the first person ever to see a points decision against Vitali, In this fight, Vitali never truly troubled Johnson, yet was never troubled himself. Through all 12 rounds, Johnson never threw more than 10 punches per round, and yet Vitali couldn’t trouble him enough to get him out, even though the referee would be forced to stop the fight due to Johnson not fighting back. In the final round, a very angry and annoyed Vitali tried his hardest to knock Johnson out to no avail. To me, this really highlighted Vitali’s lack of hand speed and maybe even lack of ideas, which for a boxer who prides himself on his strategic superiority was very worrying.

On 29 May 2010, Albert Sosnowski fought against a very slow and unimpressive Vitali Klitschko. I thought this was the most competitive of all of his fights for a long time, even though Vitali was clearly winning. Unlike other boxers from the USA who fight Vitali in Germany, Sosnowski was not mentally beaten. Sosnowski was able to get in close, yet found it hard to land many shots. Sosnowski’s speed was easily visible in this fight and made Vitali look old and slow for the first time in his career. It took to the 9th round for Albert Sosnowski to be troubled by Vitali and was eventually KO’d in the 10th. This KO did not disguise how bad Vitali looked in that fight and there were a few moments were Albert Sosnowski’s speed forced a comparison between Vitali and a Cargo ship turning.

The scheduled October 16th fight with Shannon Briggs is a safe fight, as Vitali has far too much for Shannon, who I don’t expect will last more than 6 rounds. Shannon has a stamina problem that could make British heavyweight Tyson Fury look like a Marathon runner. Shannon has his best chance within the first two rounds, and if it goes past round 2, his chance starts to diminish. Vitali is far too tactically sound to lose to some of the older and bigger heavyweights in the division, but I expect he would struggle and eventually lose his title to a boxer that holds significant speed. A future fight with a heavyweight that has speed in abundance would be very problematic for Vitali. Maybe it’s time to retire again.