26.04.06 – By Larry Hawthorne: On April 22, 2006 boxing fans witnessed a true demolition of a champ’s title being brutally taken away in a savage one-sided beating. The destruction came by benefit of Wladimir Klitschko´s hands and Chris Byrd´s face. While Byrd may disagree with the stoppage, however, it was totally clear that Byrd’s gallant effort amounted to just that, a gallant effort..
Try as he might, Byrd was destined to take a beating and there wasn’t much he could do about it, considering he didn’t have the size or power to make Wladimir respect him. Nevertheless, Klitschko has risen from the ashes to hold the IBF/IBO Heavyweight Crown and is now a two-time heavyweight world champion.
This brings me to bring up something strange: Wladimir´s current accomplishment seems to be more of a mystery due to the fact he’s been such an average fighter in the past three years, losing two fights by knockout and getting knocked down nine times during the same period. For that matter, I still have questions about Wladimir´s tender chin, which wasn’t remotely tested by the outgunned and undersized Byrd, who was simply blasted apart by Wladimir’s awesome offensive attack.
In the wake of his losses to Corrie Sanders and Lamon Brewster, both devastating punchers, Wladimir´s major challenge came against Samuel Peter, who proved to be totally outclassed by Wladimir, despite Peter knocking him down several times in the bout; however, Peter clearly did not have enough experience to contend with Wladimir, for he took a savage beating by the huge Ukrainian, who pounded Peter all fight long with big rights and huge left hooks. To Peter’s credit, he took the blows well, that is, until the 12th round, when he carelessly walked into a powerful left hook thrown by Wladimir, causing the Nigerian to stagger and almost go down. Peter was able to make it out of the round. However, it was seemed only due to Wladimir’s reluctance to land the final blow to put Peter out of his misery.
Since hiring the world renown trainer, Emanuel Steward, Wladimir has evolved somewhat into a more western fighter, however, he hasn’t fully abandoned his Eastern European tactics, i.e., he jabs more and he paces himself better, yet, Wladimir also continues to fight with lumbering footwork, which may be his Achilles heel when he fights an opponent with real knockout power, for example, Hasim Rahman or Lamon Brewster. Unfortunately for Chris Byrd, he didn’t posses this highly needed attribute against Wladimir and paid for it by getting slaughtered. Byrd, for the most part, never stood a chance in this bout, since he had nothing to keep Wladimir off of him, nor did he have the power or size to get inside on Wladimir.
Now, at this point in Wladimir’s career, I think he needs to fight an opponent that will test his skills, well as his chin, because he needs to have competitive bouts, where the public can see his skills on display. However, I really don’t see any fighter out there that has those qualities, as most of the big hitters, like Rahman and Brewster, are either getting old or are potentially facing career ending injuries. If he is presented with the possibility, Wladimir should try to unify because I think he think he has the best skills out of the all the heavyweight champions, by far. That’s not to take anything away from Valuev, Liakhovich and Rahman, since they’re all good fighters but as far as I can see, they don’t come close to having the same skills as Wladimir, who I think can be the next Ali, if given enough time to train with Steward.
As far as I can see, currently Wladimir has the potential to be the undisputed heavyweight champ. However, the reality of that ever happening is remote at best, considering that there’s so much politics in boxing. As a fight fan, I see Wladimr Klitschko´s domination to continue for the next 2-3 years, perhaps longer depending on how much more he learns from Steward. Only time will tell.