SKILL OVERTAKES WILL – KLITSCHKO DEFEATS PETER
By Ron Brashear

INSIDE BOXING (9/24/2005) – Wow! What a night of championship boxing! On the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and televised on HBO’s boxing after dark, fans were treated to a very entertaining WBO & IBF heavyweight elimination bout for the #1 ranking between Samuel "the Nigerian Nightmare" Peter (24-0, 21 KOs) and former WBO heavyweight champion, in Wladimir Klitschko (44-3, 40KOs).

Going into this bout, most observers, including myself, thought that there would be no way that this fight would go the full 12 round distance. Not only did it go the distance, but there was plenty of excitement along the way. Wladimir Klitschko showed the boxing world how SKILL can overtake WILL, as long as you have the courage to go for it! Klitschko had to reach deep and overcome three knockdowns, (two of them in the 5th round and one in the 10th round) to hand Samuel Peter his 1st loss as a professional.

It was obvious from the on set in the early rounds that Klitschko possessed the better skills and was picking Peter apart with stiff jabs and good straight over hand rights to head. Samuel did gain a lot of respect and backed up what all the buzz was about pertaining to his power. However, as I had stated in the pre-fight story, the lack of defense would be the flaw that would get exposed by Klitschko. There aren't too many heavyweights that could have stood up the punches that Klitschko was landing on Peter. He has a great chin, but it is never healthy to be absorbing punches like that to the head

All three judges scored the bout 114-111 in favor of Klitschko and he is now the #1 mandatory challenger for both, the IBF & WBO championship. Klitschko improved his record to (45-3, 40 KOs). Therefore, the long-time goal of the Klitschko brothers to be world champions at the same time now has a good possibility of happening. Wladimir will probably take on the winner of Byrd vs. Williamson, which takes place next week in Reno. Wladimir already has victories over both of them in the past. So if Vitali can successfully defend his WBC title in December against Rahman, history could really be made in the heavyweight division soon afterwards.

As for Peter, he has nothing to be ashamed of. He put up a game effort and will just need to further enhance his defensive skills and he can still become a champion in the future as well.

In the under card bout, Miguel Cotto improved his undefeated record to (25-0, 22 KOs) by stopping previously undefeated Ricardo Torres (28-1, 26 KOs) at 1:52 of round seven to retain his WBO 140lb championship. This was also a very entertaining fight and marked the 1st time that Cotto has been knocked down in his professional career. Cotto dropped Torres in the 1st round, Torres scores a knock down against Cotto in the 2nd, and Cotto comes back and drops Torres again in the 4th, & the 6th round.

So fights fans had a lot to be excited about on this Saturday night of boxing!

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Ron Brashear can be contacted at brashear@insideboxing.com, ron@brasheargear.com