How Could I Be So Wrong?!

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Going into Saturday nights heavyweight fight between Sam Peter and Vitali Klitschko, I was confident, I repeat, confident that Peter would be too much for the un-retired Klitschko.¬† Boy was I wrong.¬† In what could be described as a virtuoso performance by Klitschko as he beat down Peter in such a one-side way that Peter called it quits on his stool before the start of the ninth round.¬† In retrospect, I should have taken more consideration on the height difference between the two.¬† In all of Peter’s toughest fights, including the loss to Wladimir Klitschko, the opponents were all much taller than him.¬† With that kind of leverage on your punches coupled with a longer reach spells a hard night for the squat¬†and compact Peter.¬† But even in light of that, who could have predicted such a performance from Vitali?¬† Being¬†¬†retired and out of the ring for five years, you had to expect some sort of ring rust or conditioning issues but Vitali showed little ill effect at all.¬† Just a stunning performance. But blame also has to be levied at Peter who fought with a piss poor game plan that could be described as following Klitschko and eating his left hook.¬† It was just baffling.¬† Peter failed to keep his right hand up, even after eating about 150 left hooks, and double jabs.¬† Then there was Peter completely ignoring the exposed body of a 37 year old fighter who had not fought since 2004.¬† Klitschko had no fear of Peter, evident by how low he kept his hands.¬† I don’t want to discount Klitschko’s victory, but Peter could not have fought a worse fight, unless he was blindfolded.¬† So what’s next for the two fighters?¬† Well assuming Vitali stays healthy there is always the title defense or a shot at the WBA title held by Nicolay Valuev, which would be big business in Germany.¬† Considering that Vitali’s brother Wladimir holds the IBF and WBO titles, and both are adamant that they will never fight each other, the only option for Vitali is to pursue the WBA strap.¬† For Peter, it is back to the drawing board as there are some deficiencies that need to be corrected if Peter hopes to reclaim a title.¬† Chief among them, his failure to formulate a Plan B in the heat of battle.¬† Granted part of that responsibility falls on the trainer but Peter needs to be aware of when straight forward pressure is not the answer.¬† There is also a¬† little punch called the “jab” that Peter should become aware of.¬†

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