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Klitschko Ordered a Bout
Heavyweight champ Wladimir Klitschko of Ukraine defended the IBF/WBO belts in Hamburg Saturday, July 12. The Ukrainian scored the eleventh round victory over Tony Thompson of the U.S.
Formally, the bout of two giants ended by the most predictable outcome. Absolutely all bookmakers had staked on that knockdown before the fight. But the reality was much tougher, to the greatest pleasure of 12,000 crowd that gathered at the Color Line Arena in Hamburg and the fans of 100 nations that watched the TV broadcast.
Victorious Klitschko acknowledged after the match that he hadn’t imagined how tough it could be. The mere appearance of boxing king was the better evidence of his honesty - his face was bleeding and he had a black eye.
Tony Thompson, the Tiger, did what no boxer had done for nearly three years. He forced Klitschko to reveal all potential during the match. In the second round, Wladimir had to drop his efficient but dull practice of left jabs that he had applied against Sultan Ibragimov at Madison Square Garden February 23. The general aggressiveness of the Tiger and his resolve to be always close to the Ukrainian instead of evading him forced the champ to use his right hand in the second round and manifest to the world at large that the robot-like style of beating isn’t the only one where he is perfect.
Klitschko was better in each round without exception, but Thompson was in no yielding mood, clinging to his outsider chance to the crowd’s ecstasy. The American didn’t manage all 12 rounds, his general fatigue was evident in round 10 and Wladimir finally dropped him to the court in the middle of the eleventh by his killing right hand. The knockdown was classical.
Klitschko will next fight Alex Povetkin of Russia.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 14, 2008
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