The Sun News On-line

Reigning World Boxing Council (WBC) champion, the ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ Samuel Peter, will this evening stake his title against WBC champion emeritus, Ukraine’s Vitali Klistschko, in an epic fight scheduled to last 12 rounds. The encounter holds at the 02 World Arena in Berlin, Germany.
It would be Peter’s first defence of his crown after he defeated Oleg Maskaev on March 8 this year with a sixth round Technical Knock Out TKO in Cancun, Mexico. The Akwa Ibom-born pugilist was merely pronounced WBC champion in the interim before the Maskaev match.

After punching his way to the top of the WBC ladder, however, Peter had publicly challenged Wladimier Klitschko, his today’s opponent’s younger brother, who is holder of the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Organisation (WBO) titles, to a unification duel. If Wladimier had agreed to Peter’s proposal, that would have been the former’s second of such fight as well as his second encounter with Peter, which resulted to Peter’s first lone professional loss on September 24, 2005. The fight ended in unanimous decision.

The fight could have seen the winner unifying three of the major four titles, the closest since Lennox Lewis dropped the World Boxing Association (WBA) diadem on April 29, 2000.

Wladimier did not reject Peter’s challenge. He rather insisted he must first fight his elder brother, Vitali, the WBC champion, who retired from boxing in November 2005, but launched a come back two years later, thus setting the stage for today’s clash.

The encounter, which is co-promoted by Duva Boxing, K2 Promotions and Don King Production, was taken to Germany, Klitschko’s adopted country because German broadcasters, RTL, paid the highest fee to secure the broadcast rights.

Peter, 28, will confront Vitali ‘Dr Iron Fist’, 37, who with his younger brother, Wladimier, are the first professional boxers to hold Doctor of Philosophy Ph.D. in Sports Medicine and Philosophy.

This evening’s bout would be Peter’s 32nd professional fights, winning 30, 23 in knockouts, and losing one. Full of hope and energy, the bulky Peter is prided as one of the strongest punchers in the heavyweight class today. He is reputed for his repeated rabbit punching of his opponents to submission.
Vitali, who was pronounced WBC champion emeritus when he voluntarily relinquished his crown in 2005 due to injury, became Peter’s mandatory challenger after the former announced his return. He holds a record 37 fight, today’s fight would be his 38th. He won 35 of such fight, 34 on KO, losing just two. On April 24, 2004, he seized the WBC crown vacated by Lennox Lewis after scoring an eight-round TKO victory over South Africa’s Corrie Sanders.

Sanders had knocked out Wladimier earlier in a second round TKO on March 8, 2003. He defended his title against British boxer, Danny Williams, who also knocked out Mike Tyson in the fourth round on December 11, 2004.

Vitali is said to have a rare combination of heavy hands and an iron chin. Three years after his retirement, he is returning with a stunning career knock out ratio of 92 per cent in 37 bouts. He is also reputed for never to have been knocked down before, never received a standing count, and has never trailed on points at the end of a bout.

He went into hibernation on the mountains, the Alps in Austria, where he trained for this epic encounter.
Peter, who trains in Nevada in the USA, arrived Freiburg in Germany weeks ago and is said to have trained in the Black Forest area of the city ahead of today’s fight. Part of his training reports included chopping down trees and cutting tree trunks.

Before now, camps of both fighters have been engaged in brickbat and ferocious verbal exchanges. Early in the week, Peter was enraged when the organisers of a press conference for the two spoke only in German, which Vitali speaks fluently.

Reports also had it that Peter has vowed to beat his opponent fair and square, stating: "I don’t know what gives him the right to step in my spotlight. I am ready to go; I have never given up on any fight."
Vitali, on his part said: "I feel great and I am very hungry for the fight. What I want to say is Samuel Peter, I’m so sorry Samuel."

However, only the end of the 12th round will determine where the pendulum will swing.