By Dave Lahr: It’s been seven years since IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wadimir Klitschko (55-3, 49 KO’s) has tasted the bitter feeling of defeat. Since being stopped by Lamon Brewster in April 2004, Wladimir has been able to roll over over-matched opposition like Tony Thompson, Hasim Rahman, Sultan Ibragimov, Eddie Chambers, Samuel Peters, Chris Byd, Ray Austin, Calvin Brock and Eliseo Castillo.

What all these fighters had in common was that they didn’t figure out properly what Wladimir’s main weakness was. Most of them came into the fight thinking they would steal a page out of the playbook used by Ross Puritty in his 11th round knockout win over a young Wladimir in December 1998 when Puritty was able to walk Wladimir down and wear him out.

The reason why Puritty was successful was because he used a high guard, had a great chin and was much heavier than Wladimir at the time. That combination wasn’t something that Wladimir’s future opponents were able to rely on because they didn’t have the same combination of attributes that Puritty had. The thing is they didn’t need it. All they had to do is look at Corrie Sanders’ 2nd round knockout win over Wladimir in 2003 to understand how to beat him.

Sanders realized that Wladimir can’t fight in close and has a stupid habit of just dropping his hands as he attempts to clinch. If you watch all of Wladimir’s fights, he has the same habit of dropping his hands when initiating a clinch. Now fast forward to April 30th of this year, and you’re going to see Wladimir matched up with unbeaten Dereck Chisora (14-0, 9 KOs) for a fight at the SAP Arena, in Mannheim, Germany.

Chisora has already noticed what I’ve noticed about Wladimir being vulnerable when he’s about to clinch and when he’s clinching. And you can bet your life that Chisora is going to take advantage of Wladimir’s weaknesses by tagging him with some nice shots when Wladimir’s going about his clinching activities.