By Allan Fox: After this Saturday’s fight against fringe contender Mariusz Wach in Hamburg, Germany, IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko could be back with his old trainer Fritz Sdunek, according to Germany news site Bild.de. Wladimir trained with Sdunek from the start of his pro career up until 2004, when Wladimir changed trainers to Emanuel Steward.
With Steward passing away recently, Wladimir is now being temporarily trained by his sparring partner Johnathon Banks, who has no training experience. Banks has been working with Wladimir to get him ready for his fight against 31-year-old Wach this Saturday, and will be working the corner for the fight.
Wladimir said “After the fight I’ll tell you how it goes.”
Wladimir’s brother WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko, who has been trained by Sdunek his entire career, said to Bild.de “I started my professional career in 1996 with Fritz Sdunek sitting over there, it is possible that he [Wladimir] continues his career with him.”
There’s no doubt that Wladimir’s career wasn’t going well at the time that he switched from Sdunek to Steward in 2004. Wladimir has been stopped recently by Corrie Sanders and had also been knocked out by Ross Puritty. In his first fight with Steward, Wladimir was knocked out by Lamon Brewster.
However, with Steward’s guidance he was able to settle Wladimir down and keep him from slugging it out so much with his opposition. He helped make Wladimir’s excellent jab a much bigger part of his offense and taught him to clinch his shorter opponents to keep them from working their way on the inside on him. Going back to Sdunek may not be the answer for Wladimir and it could cause him problems if he reverts back to his former style of fighting while trained by him. Wladimir needs a trainer that can keep his current fighting style intact instead of someone that brings backwards to an earlier, less effective stage of his development.
There’s no doubt Wladimir can and will beat Wach no matter who’s training hi for this fight. Wach has been picked out from the bottom of the top 15 rankings and it’s going to be pretty clear as soon as the fight starts that he doesn’t belong in the ring with Wladimir.
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