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HBO World Championship Boxing Recap

July 12, 2008

Color Line Arena-Hamburg, Germany

IBF/IBO/WBO Heavyweight (200+ pounds)12-Round Championship Match:

Dr. Wladimir Klitschko (50-3, 44 KO's, 241 pounds) (c) vs. Tony Thompson (31-1, 19 KO's, 247 pounds)

The doctor of sports science won both the IBF and IBO championships by defeating Chris Byrd via technical knockouts 41 seconds into round 7 on April 22, 2006 at the SAP-Arena in Mannheim, Germany. Byrd was the IBF champion going into the match. However, the IBO championship was vacant. The previous IBO champion was Lennox Lewis who vacated the title to retire. Klitschko is making his fifth defense of these titles.

Klitschko won the WBO title from Sultan Ibragimov in his last match via 12-round unanimous decision on February 23, 2008 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. A full recap of that match can be found read on my new website number1contender.com at this link: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2008/7/13/recap-of-wladimir-klitschkos-last-match.html. Klitschko is making his first defense of this title.

Klitschko was a great amateur boxer, who took homethe gold medal for the Ukraine in boxing at super heavyweight (200+ pounds) at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics.

The champion's last match was the victory over Ibragimov.

Klitschko is The Ring magazine's number 1 contender at heavyweight to their vacant championship in the weight class.

Thompson did not begin boxing until he was 27-years-old, and had no significant amateur experience.

The Washington, D.C. native is facing Klitschko, because he defeated Luan Krasniqi via technical knockout at 2:39 of round 5 on July 14, 2007 at the same arena this match is being held at tonight. The victory made him the mandatory challenger to the belt that was being held by Ibragimov. After, Klitschko defeated Ibragimov, Klitschko was ordered to face Thompson or forfeit his newly won title.

The challenger's last match was a technical knockout victory 1:49 into round 2 overCliff Couser on September 27, 2007 at the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino in Lemoore, California.

Thompson is The Ring's number 9 contender at heavyweight.

At 32-years-old Klitschko is 4 years younger then 36-year-old Thompson. Klitschko has the height advantage standing 6' 6" tall, while Thompson stands 6' 4.5" tall. Thompson has the reach advantage with a 29" arm length measured from the armpit to the end of the fist, compared to Klitschko's 26" arm length measured the same way. Neither boxers' unofficial weight approaching match time is available. However, their weights are unlikely to have changed much, since the official weigh-ins. The champion will employ the orthodox stance and the challenger, even though he is right handedwill box out of the southpaw stance. According to HBO.com, Klitschko is a 5-to-1 favorite.

The unified rules of boxing are in effect for this match.Two oftheofficial judges keeping score of this match from ringside are from the United States and the other is from Germany. The referee is Joe Cortez. Keeping unofficial score of this match for HBO is Harold Lederman.

Klitschko wins an ugly round 1, 10-9. Klitschko's trainer, Emanuel Steward, and Lederman score round 1 for Thompson, 10-9. Less then 3 seconds into round 3, Thompson falls forward onto his hands and knees on the mat. The referee is ruling it a slip. That may not be the correct call. Theaction is restarted with 2:49 to go, and Thompson appears to be favoring his left ankle a little. With over 1 minute to go in round 2, Klitschko has been cut above the right eye. It was probably caused by a headbutt during the numerous grappling contests the boxers are having on the inside. At the same time Thompson is cut above the right eye,. It too, was probably caused by a clash of heads. Thompson's cut should not be a problem, because it is somewhat off to the side and not directly over his eye. However, Klitschko's cut is in his eyebrow directly above his right eye and bleeding heavily. The fact that Klitschko does have the best cut man in the business, Jacob "Stitch" Duran, working his corner may play a factor in the champion's ability to perform optimally for the remainder of the match. Klitschko's ability to consistently land big right hands wins round 2, 10-9. Lederman scores round 2 for Klitschko, 10-9. Neither boxer did much in round 3. However, Klitschko spent much of the round going backwards, possibly because he was bothered by the cut. Therefore, Thompson wins round 3 on ring generalship, 10-9. After 3 rounds, Klitschko leads on my scorecard, 29-28. A replay after round 3 shows that the same clash of heads opened up both Klitschko and Thompson. The referee did not see the clash of heads and has ruled that both boxers were cut by a punch. Lederman scores round 3 for Klitschko and has the champion ahead in the match after 3 rounds, 29-28.

Klitschko's powerful right hand wins round 4, 10-9. Lederman scores round 4 for Klitschko, 10-9. Klitschko wins a close round 5, 10-9. In Klitschko's professional career, no one has landed more then 18 total punches in a round against him. In round 4, Thompson landed 19 total punches. In round 5, Thompson landed 21 total punches. The workrate of Thompson and wrestling on the inside has Klitschko beginning to tire. However, Lederman also scored round 5 for Klitschko, 10-9. Klitschko's hard punching wins round 6, 10-9. Thompson is landing more punches then any of Klitschko's previous opponents, however there is very little power on Thompson's punches. That is why Klitschko is dominating on the scorecards. Klitschko leads on my scorecard after 6 rounds, 59-55. The champion wins round 6 on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9, and is winning the match after 6 rounds, 59-55.

Klitschko dominates round 7 to win it, 10-9. Thompson attempted maybe 1 meaningful punch in the round. The only other punches the challenger attempted were 4 inch punches to Klitschko's body from the clinch. They did no damage to the champion. Lederman scores round 7 for Thompson, 10-9. At this point Thompson is begin to look like a beaten boxer, and the cut above his right eye is bleeding, again. The cut above Klitschko's right eye has stopped bleeding. Thethe lack of offense from Thompson has allowed Klitschko to work offensively with what seems like littleeffort in almost cruise control. Klitschko is not having to use the extreme effort required to work to land punches against an aggressive opponent who is hard to hit. Thompson is standing passively with his hands up in a high guard position. It seems only a matter of time before Klitschko ends Thompson's night. Round 8 was dominated by Klitschko, but Thompson did manage more offense then he did in round 7. However the Olympic gold medalist wins round 8 on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-9. In round 8, Thompson set the record for most total punches landed on Wladimir Klitschko in a professional match, surpassing Ray Mercer with 124 total punches landed. That is unlikely to beenough for Thompson to get a rematch with Klitschko. With 2:24 to go in round 9, the referee calls time to have someloose tape onThompson's right glove fixed. After Thompson's corner took about a minute to apply 1 piece of tape, the action was resumed. Klitschko wins round 9 on Lederman and my scorecard 10-9. We both have the champion ahead in the match after 9 rounds, 89-82. Through 9 rounds, CompuBox reveals that Thompson has landed 135 total punches, while Klitschko has landed only 100 punches. That is hard to believe watching this match and the way Klitschko has appeared better in every way then Thompsonfor most of the contest.Thompson was a professional sparring partner for many years, including for Klitschko and he appears to have regressed into that role for the last several rounds. The Washington, D.C. native is not initiating any significant offense, but appears more intent on finishing the match standing. Thompson appears mentally beaten and that he is no longer out to win this match. He keeps telling his corner in between rounds to trust him. However, it appears the secret plan Thompson is not telling his corner is that he will stand there and letKlitschko punch him for 3 minutes. It appears his corner may be thinking about stopping this one at some point, which could be fair.

With 16 seconds to go in round 10, Klitschko steps on Thompson's foot while the boxer's weremaneuvering in a clinch, and they both go down. It was near the ropes and Thompson who was walking backwards got the worst of that fall. He landed on his backside with his right hip taking the brunt of the impact. His back and head came down hard against the ropes, but his head andupper bodyappear fine, outside of the pummeling they have received from the champion. However, when the challenger fell the massive Klitschko fell on him. It appears Klitschko caught Thompson with a knee to some part of the American's right leg, while going down and crushing him. Thompson is getting up slowly and appears hurt. He appears to be favoring his right leg after this fall. Klitschko's knees hit the canvas, and his upper body went through the ropes, but he appears unhurt from the tumble.The referee gave Thompson a few seconds to walk it off. Then,the bell sounded to end the round before any punches could be thrown when the match was resumed. That will give Thompson another 1 minute to recover. For meaningless scoring purposes, round 10 was all Klitschko and hetakes it on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-9. Klitschko pushes Thompson up against the ropes with 2:40 to go in round 11, and challenger slides down to the mat.Thompson did not go down, because of a punch. He was forced down from exhaustion and the overpowering strength of the Olympic gold medalist. Thompson gets up slowly and the action is resumed with 2:32 to go in the round. Even if Thompson is not severely hurt from one punch or combination, it may be time for Thompson's corner to start seriously thinking about ending this match. A punch so fast that no one on HBO commentary is sure what hand it was, sends Thompson to the canvas with 1:42 to go in round 11. It is time for Thompson's corner to throw in the towel if the referee does not stop it. Thompson does not look "right" anymore. Thompson started to get up at 9, but could not beat the referee's 10-count. This match is over. Replays show that it was a right hand that ended Thompson's night.

The official outcome from Michael Buffer is that: at 1:22 of round 11 the winner by way of knockout and still IBF/IBO/WBC Heavyweight Champion of the World, "Dr. Steelhammer" Wladimir Klitschko. The win moves Klitschko to 51-3 with 45 wins by way of knockout.

The final punchstat numbers have Klitschko landing 121 of the 411 total punches he threw, for a 29% total connect percentage. Klitschko landed 85 of the 245 power punches he threw, for a 35% power connect percentage. Thompson landed 150 of the 408 total punches he threw, for a 37% total connect percentage. The vanquished challenger landed 93 of the 221 power punches he threw, for a 42% power connect percentage. Punchstat numbershave rarelymore falsely represented what happened in a match then in this case.

Klitschko did not say anything of note in his post match interview.

Klitschko's next match will likely be against another mandatory challenger, Alexander Povetkin, in October or November. The heavyweight picture isa mess thathasbeenwritten about many times in these recaps. The various sanctioning bodies are going to keep Klitschko away from the other heavyweight title holders for a long time. His performance in this match was very good. Thompson's style was awkward, and Klitschko solved it to dominate this match. Klitschko is easily the best heavyweight in the world, he only needs to keep beating the top heavyweights to become the official heavyweight champion. However, different mandated matches should prevent Klitschko from attaining that status until at least late 2009.

Thompson was good in this match. His style is awkward and he is capable of beating many top heavyweights. However, he possesses almost no punching power. To be an elite heavyweight he will need to add a substantial amount of punching strength. Thompson possesses great physical tools with his great height and reach. However, without developing the strength to go with it he will only be a fringe contender. This match paid him more then he had earned in the rest of his career as a boxer combined. It seems unlikely he will get a title shot anytime, soon. However, if he were to continue winning he will likely be named a mandatory challenger to some belt again in the future.

This show was good for heavyweight boxing, but rather mediocre boxing in general. The actual match did not begin until over 40 minutes into the telecast. This is an easy skip. Klitschko's next match against Povetkin could be entertaining, though.