Wladimir
Klitschko Unifies Heavyweight Titles
by Hal Clarke
Bout of February 23, 2008.
It was wasn't pretty or exciting
or memorable but Wladimir Klitschko did what he had to do to defeat
Sultan Ibragimov in tonight's 12 round heavyweight unification
fight live from Madison Square Garden. The 6 foot 6 1/2 inch monolithic
Klitschko slapped, held, and fired a relentless and hard left
jab throughout, keeping Ibragimov at bay and earning him the first
heavyweight title unification in 9 years. Ibragimov, for his part,
danced, feigned, and winged overhand lefts which rarely found
the target. The 6 foot 1 inch Ibragimov tried to get inside but
Klitschko's jab-jab-jab offense and hold-when-engaged defense
proved too much for the 2000 Olympic silver medalist from Russia.
It was not until the middle rounds that Klitschko, himself a 1996
Olympic gold medalist from Ukraine, even threw a punch other than
a jab, and even when he did unleash his power shots they were
thrown sparingly and never in combination.
The biggest moment of the fight
came in the 8th where consecutive Klitschko straight rights put
Ibragimov off balance and nearly through the ropes. Iggy was quick
to recover, however, and even when urged by his corner to put
his opponent away, Klitschko's extremely cautious approach and
seeming fear to take even one punch proved enough to ensure the
fight would go to the cards.
The judges had no problem awarding
Klitschko nearly every round, a well-deserved decision for a smart
though somewhat cowardly performance. The shutout performance,
however, was not enough to quell the boos from the New York City
crowd, which seemed dissapointed that a giant like Klitschko fought
so warily and defensively against a guy who many compared to Barney
Rubble. Klitschko was certainly the better boxer but he didn't
win any fans with his overly cautious performance.
With the win Klitschko now owns
two title belts, the WBO and IBF trinkets, and moves his record
to 50-3 (44 KOs). Ibragimov falls to 22-1 (17 KOs) and is, for
now, out of the title picture.
Hopeful future match-ups for
Klitschko include further unification bouts and most interestingly,
a bout with 7 foot Russian giant Nikolay Valuev. It would be fascinating
to see Klitschko the smaller man against Valuev and would force
Klitschko to engage or be out-pointed by Valuev's longer jab.
Though this particular fight seems unlikely at the moment (neither
side seems willing to expose their giant), if both continue to
win it may be inevitable.
Here is the official scoring
of the fight:
119-110, 118-110, 117-111
(all for Klitschko)
My Scoring of the Fight:
| Round |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
Total |
| Klitschko |
9 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
9 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
118 |
| Ibragimov |
10 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
10 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
110 |
Quote of the night from
HBO Commentator Jim Lampley:
"He's definitely the
best body in the division, maybe tonight we'll see if he's the
best fighter." (lusting over Klitschko's chiseled physique).
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Want to tell Hal Clarke he doesn't know anything
about anything? Or maybe you agree. Email him at halclarke@undependentmedia.com
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