By Jim Dower: #1 IBF Kubrat Pulev (20-1, 11 KOs) came up short last Saturday night in getting stopped in the 5th round by IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (63-3, 53 KOs) in their fight at the O2 World Arena in Hamburg, Germany.
Pulev, 33, says he lost the fight due to him making a mistake. He thinks that Wladimir got lucky. Luck or not, Pulev was knocked down four times in the fight before the fight was stopped by referee Tony Weeks in the 5th round after Pulev was flattened by a left hook by Wladimir.
With his first loss of his career, Pulev is now hoping that Wladimir will turn around and give him a rematch. I’m not sure if that’s going to happen because the fight was largely one-sided when you take away the occasional power shot that Pulev hit Wladimir with, and if you ignored the rabbit punches that Pulev was throwing during the first four rounds.
“He [Wladimir] got lucky that I made a tiny mistake…Nonetheless, it should be his honor to give me a rematch,” Pulev said to sport.segodnya.ua.
The mistake that Pulev is talking about likely is him failing to keep his left hand up to protect his chin in the 1st and 3rd rounds. Wladimir hurt Pulev badly in the 1st round with a hard left hook to the head that put him down on the canvas. Pulev got back to his feet, but he was badly hurt and fortunate that the fight wasn’t halted at that point.
Pulev was staggering so badly that many referees likely would have stopped it right then and there. As the fight went on, Pulev did a better job of keeping his guard up to block Wladimir’s left hooks and right hands. However, the damage was already done from the knockdown in the 1st round, because Pulev never seemed the same after the initial knockdown.
Wladimir pushed Pulev down for the second knockdown in the opening round. In the 3rd, Pulev was hit hard by a right hand from Wladimir. Moments later, Wladimir pushed Pulev to the canvas and was given credit for another knockdown.
Wladimir will probably not give Pulev a rematch even though the fight would be an interesting one to watch if Pulev could fix the mistakes that he made in their fight last Saturday. Wladimir is interested in fighting for the WBC title against the winner of the Bermane Stiverne vs. Deontay Wilder fight. Wladimir could also end up fighting Shannon Briggs, Bryant Jennings and the winner of the Tyson Fury vs. Dereck Chisora fight.
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