Vitali: My trainer warned me not to fight Chisora

By Boxing News - 01/16/2012 - Comments

Image: Vitali: My trainer warned me not to fight ChisoraBy Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko revealed in BoxNation face to face that his trainer Fritz Sdunek told him not to fight Dereck Chisora.

It’s unknown what specifically Sdunek was afraid of about Chisora, as he’s not accomplished a whole lot in the heavyweight division other than stopping an old Danny Williams and beating some domestic level fighters like Sam Sexton, Carl Baker and Paul Butlin.

If that’s all it takes to get Sdunek fearful of matching Vitali against Chisora then that’s pretty sad, because Chisora was soundly beaten by 22-year-old Tyson Fury last year and also beaten Robert Helenius.

These two heavyweights aren’t in the same class as Vitali. Heck, Helenius beat Chisora using only his left hand for most of the fight after coming into the fight with an injured right shoulder.

I think Vitali was joking when he said that his trainer doesn’t want him to fight Chisora because it just doesn’t make sense. Chisora is a bottom tier ranked fighter who wasn’t even ranked in the top 15 when Vitali shoes him for his February 18th fight in Munich, Germany.
Vitali said “He told me not to fight you, but I said ‘No, I want to.’ I’ve lost two fights and they were down to injury; no one can stop me.”

I see Chisora as a weaker, smaller version of journeyman Ross Puritty (31-20-3, 27 KO’s). Probably not too many of the newer boxing fans know who this guy is but the older ones know of him for being the guy that stopped Wladimir Klitschko in the 11th round in December 1998. Puritty had huge power in his right hand and excellent jab.

The guy could really punch and he had excellent defensive skills a great chin. Puritty’s problem was that he covered up most of the time and wouldn’t throw enough punches to win a lot of fights. Puritty was like the Arthur Abraham of the heavyweight division. He was a huge puncher but he wouldn’t let his hands go enough to beat some of the better guys.

Chisora isn’t as big as the 6’3” 250 pound Puritty, and his jab isn’t nearly as good, but he still reminds me a lot of the guy because of the way Chisora can come up with a really big shot every once in a while. Like Puritty, Chisora doesn’t throw a lot of punches and can easily be out-boxed by top guys. We’ll see that in the Vitali-Chisora fight next month.

Incidentally, Vitali avenged Wladimir’s loss to Puritty by stopping him in the 11th round in 2001. Puritty wasn’t as young as he was when he fought Wladimir, but Vitali stayed calm and didn’t try to run around the ring like Wladimir did to escape Puritty’s big right hand shots. Vitali merely leaned back to avoid most of the big ones, but still ended up taking a few really hard shots in the process of winning the fight.



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