Posted on 09/25/2005 11:23:55 AM PDT by Mazepa
Klitschko is Peter’s Worst Nightmare by George Kimball
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Advertised as a ‘heavyweight eliminator,’ Saturday night’s fight at Boardwalk Hall may have lived up to its billing: With any luck it may have eliminated both heavyweights.
What does it say about Samuel Peter that he knocked his opponent down three times, was never down in his fight, but lost on the cards of all three ringside judges, as well as those of every reporter at ringside?
What does it say about Wladimir Klitschko that he got knocked down by a boxer as clumsy and amateurish as Peter appeared to be on this night?
And what does it say about the heavyweight division that either of these guys will shortly find himself fighting for a title?
Klitschko won going away (114-111 on the cards of all three judges, and ours as well), and conquered at least a few of his own demons as well. When the Ukrainian giant hit the deck twice in the fifth round, he looked to be on the verge of reenacting his swoon against Lamon Brewster, but Klitschko survived that battering, as well as a subsequent trip to the canvas in the tenth round, and resumed his aggressor’s role down the stretch.
“Hopefully I’ve convinced some of my critics that I have the stamina to go 12 rounds,” said the victor afterward.
The crowd of 10,137 turning out for the “Boardwalk Brawls” came expecting to see somebody get blown away, but the explosive display of power never materialized. It was clear from the time the boxers entered the arena that this was going to be a home game for Klitschko. Blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags were visible throughout the old barn, and his supporters alternated between enthusiastically chanting Klitschko’s name when he was in control of the fight (which was most of the time) and holding their collective breath each time he got knocked down.
Klitschko spent much of the evening utilizing his height advantage to land long-range jabs, punctuated by the occasional, and usually ineffectual, right hand. Peter is listed as 6’2”, but it rapidly became clear that given the differential in size the only way he was going to land a jab at all was to take two quick running steps to get inside Klitschko’s reach to throw it. The first few times Peter assayed this maneuver, Klitschko appeared to be so startled that he recoiled in surprise, but in short order he realized that it would be far more effective to simply reach out and embrace Peter on the way in, smother the punch, and wait for referee Randy Neumann to come along and untangle them. Thus did much of the rest of the bout proceed.
Klitschko had dominated most of the early going, but early in the fifth Peter bull-rushed him to land a quick trio of punches, the middle of which was a clubbing right hand that caught Wladimir on the top of the head, and as Ukrainians throughout the hall gasped in unison, their man was down.
He was clearly hurt, and though Peter piled it on in an effort to capitalize on the damage, he wasn’t quite able to finish the job. He did put Klitschko down with another right hand, but Wladimir was able to effect his best John Ruiz impression and held on for dear life until he was rescued by the bell.
The cobwebs cleared, and the rest of the fight was notably one-sided apart from the tenth, when Peter landed another right hand to the top (the back, Wladimir would claim) of Klitschko’s head to send him straight down again.
Dr. Klitschko survived that one, and escaped unscathed as Peter chased him around the ring. It was to be Samuel’s last gasp. Over the last two rounds, his face increasingly puffy, he threw mostly wild left and right hands, hoping to get lucky, but couldn’t find the jackpot.
What does it say about the heavyweight division that either of these guys will shortly find himself fighting for a title?
CompuBox punchstats revealed that despite absorbing a hat trick’s worth of knockdowns, Klitschko landed a hundred more punches than his Nigerian opponent over the twelve rounds, mostly thanks to a whopping 129-26 margin in jabs connected.
Peter certainly looked the worse of the two when it was over, and offered no complaint about the decision.
“I took Klitschko’s best punches and I knocked Klitschko down three times, but he fought his best and he beat me,” said Peter, now 24-1. “If we fought on my best night I could beat him, but he beat me tonight.”
Yup, Klitchsko did nothing to dispel the impression that any decent heavyweight can knock him out, Peter did nothing to live up to his 'next great hope' hype gained from knocking over a few nobodies....
Was able to catch this on last night - Love boxing - Your above comments are dead on -
The Cotto Vs Torres fight was the best of the night - Cotto chin won't allow him to be the champion some were expecting him to be (he won, but his chin was exposed again).
Doesn't hold a candle to Roe vs. Wade. That fight's been going on for more than 30 years! :-)
I thought Cotto's chin stood up pretty good actually, the problem was that he kept getting punched on it! No-one has a good enough chin to be able to take that many clean shots on a regular basis. Needs to tighten up his defences, or someone of a higher class will take him out.
I have to disagree - Cotto completely zones out when he gets tagged (for 10 to 20 seconds he is out of it) - That won't cut it - And it wasn't like he was getting hit repeatedly...it was just whenever Torres landed it hurt him! (bad sign for the future)
I will give Cotto credit though - He does manage to clear his head though after 30 seconds or so and resume his style (but those 30 seconds will prove costly Vs a top-notch guy).
He's fun to watch though - I see HBO setting up a rematch (considering Torres only had 3 weeks notice for the fight).
Umm yeah ok, I agree with that a bit. Cotto did get hit too often and too cleanly by single shots which was the base problem, but you are correct that, once he was hit and hurt, his instincts were not good, he didn't clinch or cover up well enough.
Torres looked to punch quite hard, but probably lacked the accuracy in following up. You're right that, against someone like Mayweather or Hatton, if Cotto gets hurt and then just leaves his chin hanging out, there'll be another 10 punches landing accurately on it, and he won't have a chance to recover.
His brother is the better boxer. It's funny, they look slow, but they are just huge guys.
Yes, we watched (painfully) it.
Klitchsko is the sorriest excuse for a heavyweight "boxing?" champion I've ever seen. The clown cannot box. PERIOD! He had one stiff left arm extended while running away from Peter allll night.
I got closer to my high school girl friend than he got to Peter last night. LOL Peter was worn out chasing Klitchsko all over the ring. And if that sorry excuse for a ref had penalized Klitchsko for holding throughout the fight then we might have seen a better fight and possibly Peter knocking him out!
The Coto/Torres fight was excellent.
And to think that Torres, a "last minute" signed opponent, almost knocked Coto out was something to watch! Again Torres ran out of gas.
I know what you're saying but actually I totally dig the Klichko style.
It's quite like soccer- general American audience is bored to death, while Europeans are going crazy over it.
Yea, well any time you want to watch a reeeeeel boxing match, you let me know.
And if you saw the Coto/Torres fight, you saw one!
Running around the ring with a left arm extended ain't boxing!
In the western hemisphere, we call that dancing!
I saw more of your boy's backside than his front!LMAO
cluck, cluck, cluck...
If they were "ineffectual" it was only because Peter has a head and neck that look like they were chipped out of a block of cement. Those were hard punches. It's amazing that he stood up to it until Klitschko finally wobbled him in the last round.
Being a cynic about the heavyweight division is a prerequisite for being a "boxer writer" (or just a guy with a website) these days. They revere the era of Ali but forget Ali's persistant clinching or lying on the ropes or Foreman's plodding, etc.
Camera man's fault.
lol
I saw it and Peter's knockdowns were only because he was allowed to hit to the back of the head. Had the ref been paying attention Peter would have been either disqualified or Klitschko would have been able to follow up one of the many times Peter was hurt and put him away.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.