10.04.04 – By Daniel Baguley – Tonight is an important night for Wladimir Klitschko. Just over a year ago he was being billed as “heir apparent” to Lennox Lewis’ throne. His plans were completely derailed when he was utterly annihilated in two rounds by the hard hitting but semi retired Corrie Sanders. Well we all know what that did for Corrie’s career. He will now face Wlad’s big brother for a chance to become the world’s leading heavyweight, but what about Wladimir? His credibility took a serious knock to say the least but the man still, undeniably, has talent even if that does say more about the current state of the heavyweight division.
His opponents since the Sanders KO, Fabio Moli and Danell Nicholson, have served little more than confidence builders and give little indication as to whether Klitschko can compete at the very top. Tonight’s fight against Lamon Brewster should give us more of an indication, as he is another ambitious contender, with a good KO percentage, who will come to win. Forget the fact its being billed for some alphabet. This is a crossroads fight between two heavyweight contenders with the winner having a chance to make a name for himself.
If I was training Brewster I would tell him to use plenty of head movement and go for the knockout, as I believe Klitschko has the superior boxing skills and also, maybe, the slight edge when it comes to “big” fights. Klitschko, at times, can look cumbersome and over methodical and doesn’t enjoy having his rhythm broken as the Sanders fight illustrated. If Brewster allows Klitschko to dictate the pace of the fight then he will lose because that is Wlad’s game. He will wear him down and maybe stop him late. But if Brewster can force the pace and make Wlad fight at a level of intensity that is uncomfortable to him then I think he can win for two reasons. Wlad’s suspect chin and Wlad’s suspect stamina.
I would like to see Wladimir try and make a bit of an impression in this fight. Whilst I agree he has talent, he fails to excite. A classic example of this was when he fought Jameel McCline. The guy was out of his depth but Wladimir stood off round after round not really doing a lot more than throw straight punches. He finally opened up when Jameel was ready to quit. Maybe this was another indication as to the lack of faith Wladimir has in his own chin. If he is gun shy then expect to see another fairly uninspiring performance from him. I know this may all sound a bit unfair but if a fighter is being given the big hype then I like to see something to justify it. With Emmanuel Steward now having an influence maybe we’ll see something different. Lamon Brewster, on the other hand, has nothing to lose, as he is still relatively unknown. I would like to see him fully commit to this fight and go for the jugular. If this happens we could have an exciting fight on our hands.