By Scott Gilfoid: Former heavyweight champion Wladimir “Steelhammer” Klitschko is well aware of IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua’s weaknesses from having sparred with him a lot in the past for many rounds in 2014, and he plans on exploiting those flaws in his armor this Saturday night in their mega-fight at Wembley Stadium in London, England.
Wladimir, 41, isn’t identifying what the faults are in Joshua’s game, but it could be his lack of mobility, stamina issues, and his problem fighting at a distance. As heavy as Joshua has become since turning pro, he’s lost whatever mobility that he once had. It’s like that with anybody. If you add 30 pounds of muscle to your frame in just 4 years, you’re not going to be quick on your feet. It doesn’t matter that the weight is muscle.
It’s still weight and it slows you down big time. Joshua made a choice to slap on a bunch of weight to his frame rather than focusing on foot and hand speed and overall quickness. It’s a gamble that Joshua has decided to take in putting on all that muscle weight, because he’s gambling that he’ll be able to knockout each of his opponents in 6 rounds or less before all that muscle weight becomes an anchor that drags him down to the depths.
If Wladimir can take Joshua into deep waters on Saturday night, Joshua’s useless muscle weight may drag him down and cause him to implode. I think that’s what Wladimir is counting on.
“We know each other, we have sparred enough rounds to know what to expect from each other,” said Wladimir to Sky Sports News HQ about his training with Joshua in 2014. “I have seen something that I’m going to use. Yeah, you might use it, you might not use it, because at the fight night things are going to be different. It’s not a sparring session, it’s a fight night.”
For Wladimir to be able to use what he knows about Joshua, he’s going to have to survive long enough inside the ring for him to use it. It’s not going to be easy for Wladimir to make it to the second half of the fight, because he’s never been able to take a lot of heavy power shots from an opponent without hitting the deck for the 10 count. We saw Wladimir get knocked out when he started taking shots in his fights against Corrie Sanders, Ross Puritty and Lamon Brewster. It was surprising how few times Wladimir was hit before he wilted. It’s not like you see with a lot of heavyweights in being able to take a number of big shots over the course of the fight before they’re knocked out.
Wladimir seems to cave in quickly once he’s hit hard a few times. That’s one of the reasons why Wladimir has the perception of having a weak chin with the boxing fans. They’ve seen Wladimir fall apart when he takes a few hard head shots. The question is has Wladimir’s chin improved since his last knockout loss in 2004? Wladimir hasn’t been knocked out in 13 years, but he’s been playing it safe for the most part in staying on the outside, jabbing, throwing single pot shots, and doing a lot of clinching. Wladimir fights in a safety first manner to avoid getting hit. He doesn’t leave a lot of openings to get hit because he’s not stationary and he makes sure he ties up his opponents on the inside.
“There is nothing, even considered in my mind – that I’m not going to make it,” said Wladimir about the Joshua fight. “Eighteen guys tried to conquer him, but they didn’t, and he did his job, he did it well.”
Wladimir could outsmart Joshua by not fighting stupid like his previous 18 opponents. We’ve seen what doesn’t work against Joshua. These are the mistakes Joshua’s past opponents have made against him:
– Standing in front of him without moving
– Not throwing punches
– Waiting for Joshua to be first
– Not tying up Joshua in close to keep him from throwing punches
– Failing to throw jabs
– Trying to trade power shots with Joshua
– Fighting off the ropes. This is mistake that a HUGE number of Joshua’s past opponents have made. They frequently with their backs against the ropes and are knocked out quickly.
– Waiting for Joshua to tire before attacking him.
If Wladimir can make sure that he doesn’t make the above mistakes against Joshua, then he’ll be ahead of the game and will have a decent chance of beating the 6’6” Joshua. I still don’t think Wladimir will win even if he fights the perfect fight, because he’ll need to be able to take a high number of power shots to the head for him to win. I don’t think Wladimir can take more than 2 or 3 hard head shots without dropping to the canvas.
Even if Wladimir does take the shots from Joshua, he still win if he’s too timid to throw punches. That’s why Wladimir lost his last fight against Tyson Fury 2 years ago. Wladimir wouldn’t throw power punches. He wasn’t even jabbing in many of the rounds. He was just following Fury around and looking silly by having his right hand cocked without throwing it.
This was the second straight fight for Wladimir where he wouldn’t throw power shots. He did the same thing against Bryant Jennings. The only punches that Wladimir looked comfortable throwing against Jennings was his jabs, which is what won him the fight. Wladimir was uncomfortable with 6’3” Jennings’ 3” inch reach advantage over him.
Joshua has a shorter reach than Jennings by 2” inches, but he still will have a 1” inch reach advantage over Wladimir on Saturday night. My guess is Wladimir will be too afraid to throw his power shots against Joshua because he won’t want to be countered if he misses a shot or hit on the way in. So we’re basically talking about with the Joshua-Klitschko fight is Wladimir trying to beat Joshua with jabs all night long rather than power punches. It’ll be Joshua’s power punches vs. Wladimir’s jab. Joshua can jab too, but he lacks the flexibility to use his longer reach against a tall opponent like Wladimir. I’ve seen Joshua throw jabs in the past. He looks tight and muscle bound, unable to get the proper extension on it the way he needs to.
If Wladimir is able to land his jabs all night long without getting hit by Joshua, then we could have an upset on our hands. Wladimir’s jab is one of the best in the heavyweight division. He could swell up Joshua’s face, close his eyes and bust his nose and lips with his jab. If Joshua can’t see Wladimir’s punches, he won’t be able to stop him from hitting him with his big right hand and left hook. We’ve seen Wladimir soften up countless opponents in the past with his jab before putting them out of their misery with his right hand.
Wladimir’s boxing skills could come into play to ruin Joshua’s big night on Saturday. It’ll be sad news for Joshua’s fans if he gets out-boxed and taken out by Wladimir, but it’s possible if the Ukrainian can minimize the amount of shots that Joshua is able to hit him with. If all Joshua can do is land few hard head shots, then there’s a slight possibility that Wladimir will be able to take them and dominate the fight with his jab. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if Wladimir knocks Joshua out with his jab, because it’s a potent weapon.