Happy birthday, champion, or the best fight in Vitali Klitschko’s career

Bogdan Gryschuk

In the fall of 2008, the boxing world saw not only the return of a great champion and an outstanding fighter, but also witnessed a vivid transformation of Vitali Klitschko.

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“I think Samuel Peter will knock out Vitali Klitschko. And after that, he should take revenge for that defeat from Wladimir Klitschko. Then Peter was a beginner and met with Vladimir a little earlier than he should have. So now he has a chance to deal with both brothers in a short period of time. It will be an outstanding fight. Samuel Peter will declare himself as an absolute world champion without five minutes.

Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua and all Nigerian governors sent their delegations to Germany, and they will all be here, near the ring, and I hope that we will be able to fight Vladimir and Samuel in Nigeria. I want to go back to Africa again, ”said Don King at the end of the summer of 2008, who made his last heavyweight bet on Nigerian puncher Samuel Peter.

Three years earlier, the dream and hope of a shocking American promoter to get the dominant world champion in the Royal Division was almost destroyed by Wladimir Klitschko, who defeated Peter on points, but King was sure that what had happened was nothing more than a misunderstanding. Yes, and Peter himself, after losing to the youngest of the brothers, gave out a series of six victorious fights, which included wins against strong Tony (twice), McCline and Maskaev. In a fight with the last “Nigerian Nightmare” and won the WBC championship belt.

The only thing left to do was to strengthen their legacy by adding a couple of titles to the collection. But to Peter’s misfortune, Vitali Klitschko, who received the title after an almost 4-year absence, decided to return to the ring, and according to the rules of the World Boxing Council, the “Honorary” champion, which was Klitschko Sr., who suspended his career due to injury, could immediately claim the title duel.

In one thing, King was not mistaken for sure – it was a really outstanding fight. The reason is in the transformation of Vitaly. Although, honestly, there were reasons to doubt the final success of the elder Klitschko. The main ones are a long downtime, incomprehensible psychological state and manner of fighting Ukrainians.

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Before meeting with Peter Klitschko Sr. did not enter the ring for four years, taking a break after an early victory over Danny Williams. During this time, Vitaly managed to suffer several painful setbacks outside of sports.

Klitschko Sr. twice lost the election of the mayor of Kyiv (“regular” and “unscheduled”), failed to agree on a fight with the then current WBC champion Oleg Maskaev (losing an undercover fight to the same King), and then got injured again while preparing for the interim duel with Jameel McCline, undergoing surgery.

In addition, Peter was seen as a rather dangerous and difficult opponent for Vitaly. Yes, in 2005, Klitschko Jr. showed how you can “disassemble” a physically powerful but poorly trained Nigerian. But it was Vladimir, who was considered, if not a reference heavyweight in terms of technology, then very close to this definition.

Vitaly, on the other hand, has always been known as a grunt, a fighter without fear or reproach, not shy about exchanges and not afraid to miss. Yes, everything was always in order with the character of Klitschko Sr. – the fights with Lewis and Sanders are perhaps the best evidence of this, but in terms of technical equipment – questions arose. (It was later that Vitaly’s technique would begin to be called “peculiar” and “non-standard”, but for now he was considered just a physically strong and characteristic fighter).

And the Ukrainian returned to the ring at the age of 37. He returned without an intermediate fight, a duel against a champion who was 10 years younger, had no downtime. By all accounts, it turned out that in a duel between two punchers with gaps in technique, punching power, chin strength and physical endurance came to the fore. And in these components it was difficult to give someone an advantage. Is it any wonder that the bookmaker’s quotes before the fight looked almost equal: 1.8 for Klitschko’s victory, 2.2 for Peter’s victory.

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There were doubts about the fight itself. In any case, at the announcement press conference held at the end of August, Peter said that the Klitschko Sr. team had signed a contract for the fight only a few days earlier, although Nightmare himself signed the agreement much earlier.

“I still have doubts about whether he will enter the ring,” Peter said with a smile, folding his hands in a prayerful gesture. — I signed the contract five months ago. They only signed it yesterday, or so they said. I am a real world champion, and Vitaly has never beaten a world champion. You say you are a champion, but you are not. You can’t be called champion until you defeat me, but you can’t do that.”

“I sympathize with Peter, because I have to fight him. Skeptics say that I will lose because I was out of the ring for three years, but I did not lose the title. I’m not inclined to underestimate Peter, he’s a good puncher, – said Vitaly. “I will do my best to regain my title and make my dream come true when two brothers hold world titles at the same time. This motivates me a lot. I promise that the fight will not be easy and will not end in scoring. It will probably end between the fourth and fifth rounds. I have many surprises prepared and waiting for Peter on October 11th.”

Vitaly did not dissemble. There were many surprises. And not just for Peter.

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Perhaps this was the first fight in which everyone realized that Klitschko Sr. is not just a fearless boxer and a brave grunt, but a thinking in the ring, disciplined, trained boxer who not only chooses a competent fight plan, but always adheres to it.

Vitaly did not rush headlong into the attack on a younger opponent, but, having taken the center of the ring, he began to methodically “shoot” Peter from a distance. Yes, the “signature” lowered hands of Klitschko Sr. have not gone away, but there were also blows from the most incredible angles and from any position. Perhaps the speed was a little gone, but the power was present in full. And also – great timing and a sense of the moment: for all eight rounds that the fight lasted, Klitschko Sr. did not miss a single serious blow, but he himself hit often and tangibly.

The missed “tonnage” could not but affect either the moral or physical condition of Peter. After six rounds, he attacked and tried to be aggressive, more like inertia. After the eighth, he refused to continue the fight, giving Vitali Klitschko the opportunity to effectively ascend the champion throne again, on which he will remain for another four years.

Yes, probably in the career of Klitschko Sr. there were more spectacular (Lewis and Sanders) and more significant (Hyde and Johnson) fights. But the fight with Peter is the most revealing, and perhaps the best intellectual fight in Vitaly’s boxing career.