Vitali Klitschko vs Samuel Peter On October 4th?

vitali5754551.jpgBy Thomas Hanson: According to German news Bild Zeitung, former WBC/WBO heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) will be fighting WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (30-1, 23 KOs) on October 4th, at the O2 World Arena in Berlin, Germany. The two were already set to fight, but had no official date set for the bout. Nothing is still confirmed yet with this, but hopefully this date and location can be ironed out soon. Klitschko, now 37, hasn’t fought in almost four years, since defeating Danny Williams in December 2004, a fight in which Klitschko knocked Williams down four times en route to stopping him in the 8th round. Shortly after that, Vitali retired after injuring himself repeatedly while training for his title defense against American heavyweight Hasim Rahman.

It’s unclear how Peter, 27, would be affected having to fight in front of a large German and pro-Klitschko crowd, who will be no doubt be cheering every punch that Vitali throws in the fight. For a fighter that fights much on adrenalin and emotion (unlike his more non-emotional brother Wladimir), this will perhaps be a big plus for Vitali. Indeed, this may be just what he needs to get beyond the four years of inactivity and push him through what will likely be a very difficult fight for him.

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Haye Interested In Bout With Peter

peter45671.jpgBy Aaron Klein: WBA/WBO cruiserweight champion David Haye (21-1, 20 KOs) received a bit of good news on when he found out that he had been received an incredible number #5 ranking in the WBC heavyweight division, bringing him only a short distance from being the number #1 mandatory for WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter’s title. According to an interview with Setanta Sports News, Haye, 27, is interested in a fight with Peter before Haye fights Wladimir Klitschko.

As usual, Haye is jumping a little ahead of himself, namely because Klitschko hasn’t of yet agreed to fight Haye, instead telling him to gain weight and get in line with the other heavyweights trying to get a bout with him. Not to be dissuaded, Haye instead intends on going for what Klitschko values the most – a heavyweight title belt – and if Haye can get Peter to give him shot, and possibly beat him, then Klitschko would naturally be more than interested in fighting Haye in order to grab another title to his growing collection.

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Klitschko-Peter: Can An Old Brittle Vitali Defeat Sam?

vitali575455.jpgBy Eric Thomas: Let me start of by saying, I’ve never been much of a fan of former WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs). I love the sport of boxing, but I never cared for either of the Klitschko brothers, especially Vitali, who never really impressed me much with the ordinary boxing skills that he showed in the ring, not to mention his tendency to experience injuries almost at the drop of the hat. I do like to think of myself as being fair, and not blinded by my dislike of a fighter when judging whether or not they have a chance at winning a particular fight. With that said, I really don’t have much faith in Vitali being able to defeat Peter, 27, the new WBC heavyweight champion, in their upcoming bout in October. I have even less faith that Vitali will even make it into the fight with suffering some kind of injury or another, likely another injury to his back or his knee, both of them chronic problems for the soon to be 37 year-old Vitali.

I’m also somewhat sickened by the fact that Klitschko was given the status of emeritus, a token title given because of him having retired as champion in early 2005, which vaulted him over more deserving top contenders in the WBC.

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Vitali vs. Peter = Klitschko vs. Johnson All Over Again

vitali6866667.jpgBy Chris Williams: A couple of weeks ago it was announced that WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (30-1, 23 KOs) would be fighting “Champion emeritus” Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) in October with the WBC heavyweight title on the line. Up to this point, I’ve heard a lot of people putting the 36 year-old Vitali down, suggesting he would likely re-injure himself training for the fight and that even if he did make it to the fight, Peter would quickly blow him out because of the long extended period of time (four years) that Vitali has been away from the ring.

I personally think there’s going to be a lot of disappointed fans come October when Vitali not only beats Peter, but thrashes him in the same fashion that Vitali did with Kirk Johnson, beating him by an easy 2nd round TKO in their December 2003 WBC title eliminator bout. Johnson was built along the same lines as Peter, around 6’2”, and with a rounded physique. In fact, Johnson, in his prime, had better overall skills than Peter – much better hand speed, work rate, and almost equal in power. Yet, Vitali jumped all over him in the first round of their fight and quickly bludgeoned him into submission, dropping him twice in the second round before the fight was ultimately stopped by the referee by Arthur Mercante Jr. at 2:54 of the second round.

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Klitschko vs. Peter: Does Vitali Have Enough Left To Beat Samuel?

vitali46353.jpgBy Aaron Klein: With the recent announcement of former WBC Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) and the current WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (30-1, 23 KOs) to fight in October for the championship, one has to wonder how much Vitali will have left for the bout. If this fight were four years ago, the last time Vitali set foot in the ring, I and probably a lot of other people would assume that Vitali would win with relative ease. After all, his chin was one of the sturdiest in the heavyweight division at the time and he had one of the best right hands in the business. In addition, with Vitali’s size – 6’8” 250 lbs – and his ability to choose whether to box or slug, he was more than a match for perhaps any heavyweight in the division.

In his prime, Vitali rarely lost a round to any of his opponents, even against Lennox Lewis in their June 2003 bout. With the ability to use his long jab, left hook, and his powerful right hand, a prime Vitali would have been more than a match for Peter. Indeed, Peter would have been hard pressed to do much with Vitali at all except for to land an occasional shot or two.

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Vitali Klitschko To Fight Samuel Peter

vitali574633.jpgBy Scott Gilfoid: After months of negotiations former WBC/WBO heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) have come to an agreement for a bout in October, though no official date has been set as of this time. It will be the first bout for Klitschko, 37, since his defeat of Danny Williams in December 2004. Following that fight, Vitali was injured repeatedly while training for a title defense against his then number #1 challenger Hasim Rahman. After multiple cancellations, involving months of time wasted for both fighters, Vitali finally stepped away from the sport and officially retired from boxing. For whatever reason, Klitschko suddenly announced late last year that he had decided on making a comeback to regain the titles.

Rather than having to work his way back like most fighters, Vitali was given the status of champion emeritus by the WBC, thus immediately thrusting him to the top of the division to take on the champion. Most recently, the dust cleared between the two WBC champions Oleg Maskaev and the interim champion Samuel Peter, with Peter winning the fight by stoppage. This set up another potential Klitschko vs. Peter bout. The first bout, Wladimir Klitschko, Vitali’s younger brother, defeated Peter in 2005, in one of the most exciting fights of the year.

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Rocky Marciano vs. Today’s Heavyweights – Klitschko, Peter & Chagaev

marciano444646.jpgBy Erik Schmidt: I often wonder how would the great Rocky Marciano (49-0, 43 KOs) do against today’s heavyweights. It’s perhaps even more of a question now than ever due to the lack of talent and interest in the heavyweight division. It’s been a decade since the heavyweight division had a champion – Mike Tyson – that fans were interested in, and since that time the quality of the fighters has dropped off dramatically, along with naturally the interest in the division as a whole. Many people say that it’s impossible for fighters of different generations to fight each other due to the size differences, the more advanced training techniques, and the better nutrition available now compared to the 40s and the 50s, when Marciano was at the top of the sport.

However, I don’t buy into all that, mainly because I see a lot of really poor trainers and a lot of heavyweights with bad diets and poor conditioning, and if anything, the nutrition and training is worse today than it was before. The main difference now, however, is that there’s a larger pool of people to get fighters from due to many of the other countries now having fighters that have turned professional. Despite that, the division still is in the worst shape now than it has been in years. So for this reason, I think it’s important to throw out the belief that you can’t compare different eras.

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Samuel Peter Gives Warning To Haye

haye1690.jpgBy Jack Kurr: WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter (30-1, 23 KOs) recently advised David Haye (21-1, 20 KOs) to take things slow while climbing the latter in the heavyweight division, saying to Santasports writer Spencer Fearon, “It [the heavyweight division] is not a place for kids…The people who jump up from cruiserweight to heavyweight, I will send them back.” Peter, 27, knows from what he speaks as he twice defeated James Toney, another cruiserweight who attempted to make a go at it in the heavyweight division.

Like Toney, Haye, 27, has appeared in to be in a rush since making his intentions public about wanting to move up to the heavyweight division shortly after his 2nd round TKO of Enzo Maccarinelli on March 8th. Haye, a fighter that doesn’t shy away from making bold comments in the media, immediately called out IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, saying he has “No chin” and fought in an “embarrassing” fashion in his recent title bout against then WBO heavyweight champion Sultan Ibragimov. The comments from Haye failed to initiate much of a reaction from Klitschko, who appeared mildly amused and responded that Haye was making noise in the media to bring attention to himself.

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Is Samuel Peter The Savior Of The Heavyweight Division?

By Scott Gilfoid: In the past couple of years the heavyweight division has all but dried up as far as talent and excitement goes. This coincides with the beginning of the Eastern European heavyweights, like Wladimir Klitschko, Sultan Ibragimov, Ruslan Chagaev, Nikolay Valuev, Oleg Maskaev and Alexander Povetkin, whom have slowly taken control over the division, beating many of the older stars. However, this hasn’t exactly been a good thing, in that most of the Eastern European fighters have been incredibly boring to watch, fighting in a typical technical safety-first style of fighting and driving all the fans away to watch more exciting fights in the lower weight classes.

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Doesn’t Anyone Want Vitali Klitschko To Fight Peter?

By Christofer Ferris: Judging by the huge outcry in the various boxing forums on the internet, few fans want to see former heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) face WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter as his next opponent. It seems that the larger amount of people firmly want to see Vitali’s younger brother, Wladimir Klitschko (the current IBF heavyweight champion) fight Peter instead of Vitali. Why is that? Don’t they see that this is a type of fight that could possibly end up in a story book ending, with the 35 year-old Vitali, who hasn’t fought in three years, coming back and defeating Peter to regain the heavyweight championship.

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