By Kyle Cochran: At Stadion Miejski in Wrocław, Poland; Vitali looked every part the old man. During pre-ring instruction, flecks of gray showed through his brown hair hinting at his age of 40 years old. This feat alone places Vitali 2nd to George Foreman who last defended his heavyweight title in 1997 about 12 years ago at the age of 47. The details would lead to the assumption that Vitali’s age would prove a tantalizing glimmer of hope for the challenger turned out to be business as usual (at a more measured pace).
In this title fight the elder Klitschko outworked a game undersized Tomasz Adamek. The first four rounds Adamek gave his best effort attempting to open with jabs to the head and body while trying to keep a fair distance from the much larger champion. Despite the efforts of the Polish native; Vitali managed to wobble Tomasz in the first two rounds, knock Adamek down in the 6th, and rock the game challenger with strong punches as the rounds edged closer to the 10th. During the 10th round Vitali began to close the show as he staggered Adamek around the ring till referee, Massimo Barrovecchio, called an end to match with about 0:39 seconds to go.
There were times where it appeared that a younger version of Vitali would have ended the fight a lot sooner. Adamek kept charging into mixed results that usually had his face at the end of a stiff left jab. In the 2nd round Klitschko seemed poised put away the scrappy fighter, but failed to do so after snapping the former light-heavyweight & cruiserweight champ’s head back with a hard right hand. In the 6th round Klitschko did even more damage with the same hand prompting the ref to call for a standing-8 after an even more violent bounce off the ropes. Still, no strong finish for the elder Klitschko in his 7th WBC championship title defense. It took till the 10th round for Vitali to put away his much smaller opponent.
Not looking too spectacular, credit must be given to Vitali for getting the victory at his advanced age. He maintained decent control of Adamek with accurate punching (primarily his jab) and his awkward “big-guy” style.
Not much can be expected of Tomasz after this fight, and if he wishes to continue I would suggest pursuing Alexander Povetkin (current WBA champ that rumored to be going up against Evander Holyfield in Dec.2011 [!!?!?]) or dropping back down to cruiserweight. Retirement wouldn’t be a bad idea either considering the Polish star has put in some memorable moments in his boxing career being the former WBC light-heavyweight champion (2005-2007) & IBF cruiserweight champ (2008-2009) in addition to his heavyweight championship charge.
As for Vitali he has a limited amount of time left and small group of talented opponents to take on making retirement appear just as viable. With names like Arreola, Dimitrenko, Stiverne, and Banks ranked in the WBC from #2-5 one wonders if there is even an exciting fight left to challenge Vitali before he calls it quits.