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Klitschko
Carried Deep By Game Thompson But Prevails
By Nat Gottlieb Courtesy Of HBO.com
They keep lining up challengers for
Wladimir Klitschko like so many bowling pins, and the
Ukrainian champion continues to roll strikes in effortless –
if not inspired – fashion. The latest pretender to get
bowled over was American Tony Thompson, whom Klitschko beat
on a KO at 1:22 of the 11th round. But this time it was not
without some effort. Thompson, only an inch shorter than the
6’6 Klitschko and a southpaw, showed a surprisingly
resilient chin and spurts of effective aggressiveness --
mainly in the early to middle rounds. But the champion, who
has now won nine straight, wore him down and then turned up
the heat looking for the knockout late and got it.
“This man (Thompson) was unbelievably
determined,” said Klitschko, whose record improved to 51-3
with 45 knockouts, a 90 per cent ratio. “This fight was very
difficult.”
Thompson (31-2, 19 KOs), who is 36 and
only started boxing at 28, was very game and tried to work
Klitschko’s body in the early rounds to wear him down. But
it was Thompson, a former sparring partner of the Ukrainian
who eventually broke down under the accumulated effect of
eating too many Klitschko right hands. Through 10 rounds,
Thompson’s chin held up against one of the most powerful
right hands in boxing, and several times he landed good
lefts of his own that seemed to stun Klitschko, although not
hurt him.
While not what you would call a
thrilling effort, Klitschko’s victory was infinitely more
exciting than his last bout in which he fought mechanically,
fighting almost exclusively with his long, hard jab en route
to winning a unanimous but boring decision over Sultan
Ibragimov in February. Klitschko looked determined to open
up his attack more and erase the memory of that fight for
his many fans in the Hamburg arena. He abandoned his comfort
zone jab at the beginning and kept throwing right hands,
obviously looking for an exciting knockout. “You are judged
by your last performance,” Klitschko said, “and while it was
good for me, it was not good for the knockout.”
If there is a heavyweight fighter out
there who can stop the 32-year-old Klitschko from rolling
another perfect game, he hasn’t shown his face yet.
Klitschko proved once again, that while he may not be the
most exciting heavyweight, he does one thing very, very
well, and that is win. Next up is likely to be a sanctioning
body mandatory in Russian Alexander Povetkin (15-0, 11 KOs),
a 2004 Olympic gold medalist who has been rushed into
contention by his German handlers and could have a
tremendous upside. As for a challenge to Klitschko coming
from America – which for nearly a century owned the
heavyweight division – there appears to be nothing but the
usual suspects, and all of them suspect.
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