By Steve Cofield, Yahoo! Sports
Samuel Peter promised he would do what he couldn't back in 2005 against Wladimir Klitschko. He was kidding himself. Peter was a shell of what he was back in his first fight against the current heavyweight champ. Peter was out gas by the third round and served as a heavy bag for 10 rounds. After absorbing a ton of hard jabs and with his face puffed up, Peter finally ate a fight ending uppercut. The Nigerian fell to his back and the fight was over at 1:21 of the 10th. Klitschko successfully defended his three heavyweight title belt in Frankfurt, Germany.
Klitschko (55-3, 49 KOs) wins his 14th straight fight and second against Peter. When they met in 2005, Peter actually dropped Klitschko three times but lost a 114-111 unanimous decision. Tonight, he was never in the fight.
"I thought I boxed really well," said Klitschko. "He obviously pressured me early on with that left hand. I though I dominated in the end. It was a comfortable win for me. I certainly enjoyed it."
ESPN's Teddy Atlas had it 90-81 heading to the 10th as did Yahoo! Sports' boxing expert Kevin Iole. Klitschko landed 142 punches over nine-plus rounds at a rate of 28 percent. Peter landed just 35 punches the entire fight and only nine of those were jabs. Klitschko's set up the devastating beating by doubling and tripling his jab. He nailed Peter with 53 jabs.
Peter's gameplan was bizarre. He made himself an easy target by coming straight forward. Once he got inside, Peter, a solid power puncher, chose to wrestle instead of throwing short punches. By the ninth round, referee Robert Byrd refused to break up the fighters, telling them to fight out of the clinch. He even approached Klitschko's corner before the tenth to tell the champ that he needed to throw more punches and get himself out of the clinch.
Klitschko also got the same message from his trainer Emmanuel Steward, who implored his fighter to finish the fight. Klitschko listened. He let his hands go and jumped back from Peter, who appeared ready to fall flat on his face from exhaustion.
The Ukranian pounded away and finally landed an uppercut that put Peter (34-4, 27 KOs) flat on his back.
The 34-year-old champ retains his IBF, WBO and IBO title belts. He did so in front of 40,000 fans at Commerzbank Arena. Dignitaries in attendance included German tennis legend Boris Becker and Klitschko's Hollywood girlfriend Hayden Panettiere.
Source: sports.yahoo.com
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