Klitschko cleans up in record Euro showdown
Wladimir Klitschko again proved his dominance of the heavyweight division, stopping Ruslan Chagaev in a hastily put together title fight Saturday night before 61,000 fans at a German soccer stadium.
The IBF and WBO champion added the Ring Magazine belt to his haul, knocking Chagaev down in the second round and opening a cut over the Uzbekistan-born fighter's left eye in the eighth. Referee Eddie Cotton stopped the fight before the 10th round.
"You can't underestimate Chagaev," said Klitschko, who stands with his brother Vitali as clearly the best in the division. "He did everything today, but I was better."
Chagaev, who is the WBA's "champion in recess," raised a deep bruise under Klitschko's right eye, but was done in by the Ukrainian's height advantage and superior power. With his strong left jab and hard straight rights, Klitschko (53-3, 47 KO's) bloodied Chagaev and never appeared in danger.
The matchup at the Schalke football club's Veltins Arena was originally billed as a showdown between Klitschko and former cruiserweight champ David Haye. But the British fighter, whose only victory since moving to heavyweight was a knockout of Monte Barrett in November, pulled out citing a back injury.
Klitschko found a replacement in Chagaev (25-1-1), who was supposed to fight Nikolai Valuev for the WBA title last month in Helsinki. That bout was called off after the weigh-in when doctors found Hepatitis-B antigens in Chagaev's blood. The doctor stopped the fight before the 10th round as Chagaev had a cut on his left eyelid and had been pounded mercilessly in the ninth.
The result goes in the books as a ninth-round stoppage. It was billed as the largest indoor crowd to ever watch a boxing match in Europe.
The 33-year-old Klitschko, who has fought most of his career out of Germany, has now won 11 in a row since an upset knockout loss to American Lamon Brewster in 2004. Older brother Vitali Klitschko holds the WBC title, but the siblings have vowed never to fight each other.
The six-foot-one Chagaev of Uzbekistan was giving up five inches in height, but he had on a previous occasion defeated seven-foot Nikolay Valuev. Klitschko, however, is much quicker and more versatile than the Russian giant Valuev.
The first round was close, with Klitschko trying to find the distance with his jab and Chagaev having limited success throwing punches to his opponent's body. Late in the second, Klitschko followed up a stinging jab with a right hand between Chagaev's gloves. Chagaev froze for an instant and then fell on the seat of his pants. He wasn't seriously hurt, and the bell soon rang.
Another thudding right landed late in the third, but Chagaev did a good job of disguising its effects. Chagaev tried to rush in aggressively on Klitschko at points in the fifth and sixth but was fended off at most turns. Klitschko pounded Chagaev with a right on the ropes in the eight, lengthening a cut over his left eye.
The ninth was a two-point round despite the lack of a knockdown, as Klitschko pummeled Chagaev throughout, leading to the third consecutive stoppage victory for the champion.
In April 2007, Chagaev became the first fighter to defeat the mammoth Valuev but after two title defences was out of commission for over a year after tearing an Achilles tendon. Chagaev was scheduled to fight Valuev again in May in Finland, but officials there cancelled the bout after the Uzbekistan fighter tested positive for hepatitis B. German boxing officials disputed those findings and said there was little risk of transmission regardless.