Who in the heavyweight division can beat Wladimir Klitschko? Aside from his brother, Vitali, who he will understandably never face in the ring, there seems to be only 2 men capable of coming close to causing an upset, but neither one are too eager to even try. Surely the time has come for Wladimir to be included on the list of most top ten pound-for-pound best fighters.
This past Saturday's total domination of Samuel Peter is further proof of the incredible improvement that Klitschko has made in the past few years. Trainer Emanuel Steward deserves much credit for taking Wladimir's talent and improving his defense, resulting in him being the best heavyweight in the world. Whereas Peter was able to knock Klitschko down three times in the first match up, he was unable to achieve anything close to a knockdown this time.
Some people will argue that the current era of heavyweights is of a generally poor standard, however, you can only beat what's put in front of you and Wladimir not only is beating his opponents, he is knocking out the majority and has hardly lost a round for the last 5 years. He has the skills, manifested particularly in a jab that holds opponents off and ensures he rarely gets hit flush, combined with the devastating power of his straight right hand. His left hook, which Ray Austin and Eddie Chambers found out about to their cost, is thrown with remarkable power even though it doesn't appear that he gets full leverage on it.
His easy dismantling of the talented Ruslan Chagaev, a fighter who potentially could have caused him problems, further cemented his legacy last year and now the only 2 fighters remaining in the division who could potentially defeat him are David Haye and Tomasz Adamek. Haye surely has the speed and punching power, but will he be able to get inside on Wladimir, which is what is needed to land on what is perceived to be a less than granite chin. My guess is that Haye would fight similar to how he fought Valuev; use an outside game and come in and throw combinations when necessary. Adamek has the skill set, but is he simply too small? We saw how uncomfortable he was at times against Michael Grant, a man of similar height to Wladimir.
Until we found out, in the meantime, the unified IBF/WBO/Ring magazine heavyweight champion, with 49 knockouts out of 55 wins to his name, should be getting the recognition that any fighter who dominates their division in such fashion would deserve.