Vladimir Klitschko won something more important than the International Boxing Federation heavyweight championship by flooring American Chris Byrd in a one-sided bout on Saturday.
The Ukrainian won back his reputation.
It took the Klitschko just seven rounds to knock Byrd to the canvas twice with a series of punishing combinations and strip the American of the IBF belt he had held for the last four years.
But in the fractured heavyweight division where there are four different belts and four boxers who call themselves the "champion", it was Klitschko's honour that was at stake in Mannheim in front of a world-wide television audience.
Klitschko, 30, had beaten Byrd once, more than five years ago, in another title fight, for the World Boxing Organisation (WBO), with a similarly lopsided display of never-ending left jabs combined with head-spinning right hooks.
The future seemed to belong to the towering Ukrianian based in Germany after that 2000 fight in Cologne. But he lost the WBO belt and began losing respect after getting knocked out in the second round by unheralded South African Corrie Sanders in 2003.
GLASS CHIN:
By the time Lamon Brewster knocked him out a year later, Klitschko had acquired the reputation of a boxer with no heart and a glass chin.
The heavyweight division has been without a clear-cut champion since Lennox Lewis retired in 2003.
The IBF is one of the four heavyweight championships, three of which are now held by boxers from Eastern Europe.
The three other title holders currently are American Hasim Rahman (World Boxing Council), Nikolai Valuev of Russia (World Boxing Association) and Sergei Liakhovic of Belarus (World Boxing Organisation).
Byrd, 35, had been the longest reigning of the four but he was so badly pummelled by Klitschko that his wife at ringside began weeping long before American referee Wayne Kelly stopped the fight after the second knockdown in round seven.
Klitschko, who did not even have a scratch, said he wanted to try to unify boxing's glamour division.
Comments
Comments are closed.