Samuel Peter

By Jim Dower: Three-time heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (36-2, 35 KOs) was too much for WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (30-2, 23 KOs), defeating him after Peter opted to quit on his stool in between the 8th and 9th rounds on Saturday night at the O2 World Arena, Kreuzberg, in Berlin, Germany. Klitschko, 37, controlled the fight with his powerful jab and right hand, hitting Peter repeatedly during the fight and badly puffing up his face. Unable to land his shots against the towering Ukrainian, Peter looked beaten and discouraged at the end of the 8th round.

Vitali, who had used his right hand to counter Peter in the earlier rounds, began pounding him at will in the 8th round with one hard right hand after another. If Peter was hoping that Vitali was going to slow down and wear out, it didn’t seem likely with the way he was unloading on Peter in the 8th.

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By Scott Gilfoid: With the WBC title match between champion Samuel Peter (30-1, 23 KOs) and champion emeritus Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) only moments away, I thought it would be a good chance to chime in with my own take on this big fight, which will perhaps be the biggest heavyweight match-up of 2008 by far. Peter, 28, is coming into this bout with one of his best victories of his career, a 6th round destruction of Oleg Maskaev in March. Peter showed awesome power in dispatching the Russian fighter, hurting him badly with powerful right hand shots.

However, in tonight’s bout at the O2 World Arena, in Berlin, Germany, Peter will have to chop down a much bigger tree in the way of 6’8″ Vitali Klitschko. If Peter thought he had it bad in his 12-round decision loss to the more athletic Klitschko brother, Wladimir, in 2005, he’s possibly got even more trouble in having to deal with a more savage and brutal Klitschko. When you strip away all of the subtle niceties of Wladimir, you get a raw slugger in the way of Vitali, who tends to hammer his opponents into the canvas with his big right and left hook. Peter will be facing for the first time a fighter with as much power as him, if not more, and a chin of equal worth. This may be a problem for Peter unless Vitali somehow implodes in the latter half of the fight through exhaustion.

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By Aaron Klein: It’s been eight years since Chris Byrd made Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) quit on his stool after the 9th round and although a lot of time has gone by, I don’t think that Vitali has ever settled doubts in the minds of many boxing fans whether he’s got a yellow streak up his back or not. For those who may not have seen Vitali’s infamous fight against Byrd, it took place on April 1st, 2000, a fight that Vitali was doing well in for the first six rounds or so. He appeared to be easily controlling the fight, using his jab and right hand combinations to keep Byrd limited to mostly defending on the outside.

Byrd, however, started coming on in the 7th round, walking down Vitali and hitting him with good left hand shots to the head and body. At the time of the fight, Vitali had a ridiculously inflated record of 27-0, with 27 knockouts, virtually all of which came at the expense of lower echelon fighters. Vitali had never faced anyone that could fight back like Byrd, and when suddenly Vitali found himself taking head shots in the 7th round, he looked uncomfortable, stressed and confused. He looked like a classic case of a fighter whose game plan had gone down the drain, and didn’t have a backup plan to fall back on.

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By Jason Kim: Former WBC heavyweight champion (35-2, 34 KOs) may be barking up the wrong tree when he takes on the dangerous WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (30-1, 23 KOs) on Saturday night at the O2 World Arena, in Berlin, Germany. “Vitali Klitschko is trying to take my title belt from me. He tried to take it out of my hands at the press conference, but I snatched it from him. It is mine! He is a phony who is messing with my career and my life, said the 28 year-old Peter, making his thoughts known loud and clear about Vitali, who has been given the status of WBC emeritus champion.

This effectively placed Klitschko at the head of the line for a gift title shot against Peter without having to work his way into a fight with him. This isn’t exactly fair to the other fighters in the division, who have worked hard to get where they are. Nevertheless, things will probably be put right anyway considering that Klitschko is only doing himself a disservice by facing Peter without fighting his way into the position like normal fighters. Even former heavyweight champion George Foreman realized the importance of tune-up matches and working slowly back to the top, which is what he did after making his own comeback in the 90s after being away from the sport for a decade.

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Photo courtesy of Klitschko Management – By William Mackay: Whatever the fighter that Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) may have been four years ago, that fighter is probably long gone. Vitali, 37, sporting a lot of gray hair, although still looking almost the same physically, will probably be a shadow of himself on Saturday night against WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter. At one time, Vitali Klitschko was one of the premier sluggers in the heavyweight division, a fighter that could take out most opponents he faced with his hard chopping right hand and powerful hooks. It would be nice if he could still fight in the manner against Peter, because the boxing public would have a great fight in store for them.

However, Vitali will be a different fighter because of his time away from the ring (his last fight was in December 2004 against Danny Williams), and will have to either come up with some different fight plans or risk getting taken out by Peter. There’s little chance that Vitali will be able to beat Samuel if he stands and trades with him for 12-rounds, because Peter hits too hard and will have a good chance of connecting with something big and taking Vitali out, or possibly cutting him around the eyes like Vitali was against Lewis.

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By Eric Thomas: In the latest boxing news, WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (30-1, 23 KOs) reacting to what appeared to him to be an insult, rushed angrily out of Monday’s press conference in Berlin. Apparently, Peter was angry that the press conference was conducted in German, which he doesn’t speak and his opponent on Saturday, Vitali Klitschko, does. According to AP, Peter responded to the few questions that were asked of him in English with his own language of Nigerian, giving them a taste of what it feels like not to be able to understand what is being said. Vitali previously made his home in Hamburg, Germany for many years, and because of that is comfortable with the language.

It’s unfortunate that Peter, the WBC champion, is forced to go all the way to Germany to have to fight given the fact that he’s the champion. However, he may end up getting the last laugh if he is able to stop the ring rusty 37 year-old Klitschko. Peter, 28, arguably one of the two best heavyweights on the planet at this time, would have preferred facing Vitali’s younger brother, Wladimir Klitschko, the IBF/WBO heavyweight champion and the fighter perceived by many people to be considered as the best heavyweight in the world.

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By Tim Nielson: I still can’t believe that Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) is foolish enough to take on World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (30-1, 23 KOs) without at least one tune-up bout beforehand. Unlike some of the poor and badly outclassed opponents that Vitali faced before retiring four years ago, Peter is fearless and has even better knockout power than the 37 year-old Vitali. In a way, this is like a bout between fighters of different eras, like a vintage 90s fighter trying to shake the dust off of his armament to test his power against a modern knockout artist in the way of Peter.

I have no doubts that Vitali, a prime version, would probably more than good enough to beat Peter by a decision. The problem is, Klitschko hasn’t seen action for four years and with that much time away from boxing he’s bound to have lost something as far as stamina, hand speed and power goes. Maybe if he were still in his 20s it wouldn’t be such a big deal, but he’s nearing forty now, and showing quite a bit of gray hair along the sides. I doubt even a fighter in their 20s would be nearly as good if they slept through four years of their career and suddenly tried picking the sport back up at 28 or 29.

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