22.04.06 – By Matt Stein: Today, we’ll get a chance to see if Wladimir Klitschko (45-3, 40 KO’s) can continue his recent success when he takes on Chris Byrd (39-2-1, 20 KO’s) for his IBF heavyweight title and for the vacant IBO belt, in Mannheim, Germany. To be sure, a lot of things have changed for Wladimir in the past five years, some of it good, and a lot of it bad, however. He’s lost to fighters that he probably would have never dreamed of losing to, such as Corrie Sanders and Lamon Brewster, while giving them a career boost in the process, and causing many of Wladmir’s most loyal fans to write him off as a potential heavyweight champion.. At the present time, Wladimir is on a three fight win streak, having beaten DaVarryl Williamson, Eliseo Castillo and Samuel Peter.
None of the bouts were pretty, however, and even with Wladimir winning, he showed a lot of timid behavior, as if expecting to be slapped down at any moment. I suppose that’s why fighters tend to want to rebuilt their career after a traumatic loss and fight a certain number of tuneup fights to try and forget the loss. In Wladimir’s case, however, it appears he still has a way to go before he achieves that state of mental readiness.
The Peter fight, though, had moments where Wladimir seemed to be evolving as a fighter, where he wasn’t afraid to go to war with Peter and trade shots. However, Wladimir was knocked down three times and seemed on the verge of being knocked out in the 10th round, after getting tagged by a big right hand by Peter. However, luckily for Wladimir, the round ended before he could absorb any more abuse, otherwise, I doubt he would have survived the round. True, the fight was marked by fouls, with Wladimir getting hit over and over again with rabbit punches to the back of his head.
Like many people, I’m in agreement that Emanuel Steward has seemed to help Wladimir, at least in the Peter fight, with his ring movement and teaching him how to clinch when he’s hurt. Whether or not Steward can completely bring Wladimir back to where he once was before his loses to Sanders and Brewster, that’s something that remains to be seen.
Wladimir’s chin is fine, as far as I’m concerned. However, what is not fine, though, is his stamina, and fear-based reaction when under all out attack from his opponents. Under normal circumstances, a fight is usually a give and take experience, where both fighters take turns attacking and then defending. Yet, for Wladimr, I don’t think he ever got used to this idea, perhaps possibly because of his string of easy stiffs he built his early ring record on. I honestly don’t know the answer. However, what I can see is this: Wladimir gets stressed, almost skittish looking, when he gets attacked in a prolonged manner and it seems to drain the energy out of his body rather quickly.
All the same, against a light puncher like Chris Byrd, 35, I doubt that it will hardly matter. Byrd has tons of courage, true, but he lacks the size and at, 6’0″ 213 lbs, he will be probably be completely overpowered by the 6’6″ 243 lb Wladimir. And even though Byrd found success against McCline, a fighter that is even larger than Wladimir, it isn’t the same, since McCline isn’t anywhere near as skilled offensively as Wladimir, who has the ability to knock out an opponent with either hand. Ultimately, Wladimir holds all this cards in this bout; He can stay back and jab Byrd, much like he did in their first bout in 2000, or he can use his left hook, a punch that he recently used effectively against Sam Peter to halt his charge in the 12th round, or he can come straight down the middle with power right hand. Clearly, Byrd won’t stay back and wait for Wladimir to get tired, like did in their last fight, since that didn’t work for Byrd and he ended up getting badly beaten.
No doubt, Byrd will attack Wladimir all out, however, in their last bout, Byrd was punished badly in the rare occasions that he attempted to attack, catching straight right hands and left hooks to the head. While I understand that kind of pressure works against Wladimir, I think if Byrd had stuck with this strategy the whole fight, he would have been knocked out as early as the 6th.
So what chance does Byrd have in this fight? None. This is going to be a slaughter, much worse than last time around. Wladimir has everything on his side in this bout: youth, size, power, and even the crowd, who will be cheering his every punch.
Prediction: Wladimir by 7th round TKO.