Vitali Klitschko Backpedals to Decision over Chisora
Vitali Klitschko receives a slap from Dereck Chisora at yesterday’s weigh-in
by Trey Pollard
It makes sense that Vitali Klitschko wants to run for office, because he fights like a politician. He’s never flashy, but mechanical; never spontaneous, but methodical; never bold or creative, but measured. He is risk averse, picks battles he’s favored to win, and responds when challenged with stoic control and discipline, plodding forward like an assembly line.
There’s a reason those milquetoast characteristics are so favored by politicians and by Klitschko (44-2): they work. By being again – quite frankly – boring but effective, Klitschko managed to win a steadfast decision Saturday afternoon over his aggressive but unpolished opponent, Dereck Chisora (15-3).
The hours before the heavyweight title fight in Munich were full of October surprises. Chisora did all he could to sway the mental game in his direction. At yesterday’s weigh-in, the British fighter gave Klitschko an open-handed slap across the face that made headlines and drove up interest in the fight.
How would Klitschko respond? Before the fight, the answer was procedurally rather than physically - again suiting Vitali’s future career.
Hours before the opening bell, Klitschko dispatched his brother Wladimir to Chisora’s dressing room as his camp’s designated representative durring the wrapping of Chisora’s hands. Chisora was reportedly enraged, demanding that anyone named Klitschko be expelled from the area, while Wlad complained the wraps were illegal.
After Chisora’s wraps were cut off to be re-done and he threatened to back out of the fight, some agreement to the non-troversy was reached to continue. But not before the Klitschko’s psy-ops did their damage.
Later during the TV broadcast, former Heavyweight champ David Haye said this was a tried and true trick of the Klitscko’s, used against him in last year’s snooze button-inducing match-up with Wlad. And it certainly seemed to get to Chisora.
The problem was the Klitschkos were messing with Chisora’s money and with his head. Over the last two years, Wlad had been scheduled to fight Chisora – then undefeated – twice, but backed out for contrived reasons to fight Haye. The disrespect was ignored by the media, but was the main explanation for Chisora's behavior. And it was the disrespect that somehow gave Chisora the idea to spit in Wlad’s face while Vitali was being introduced.
The smaller Chisora approached Vitali with a mouth full of water and sprayed it in Wlad’s face like a hack comedian’s seltzer bottle. While Wlad’s restraint in not swinging at Chisora was admirable, it was the final cue for collected, breathless handwringing about how Chisora was bringing an unwelcome attitude to a sport marked by people getting punched in the head. After the fight, Chisora gladly raised that mantle again.
If Klitschko was angry, he did not show it in the ring. Instead, he stoically watched as Chisora shuffled forward for several rounds, creeping backwards while timing the Brit’s charges and smacking him with big right hands. Chisora was busy with his hands, but was landing far fewer than he received. He took three or four tough shots in order to get inside and land single rights of his own to Klitschko’s body. The work rate wasn’t enough, and with a touchstone right or two each round, Vitali easily laid claim to the first five of the fight.
Still, Chisora was not noticeably winded or hurt ever in the bout. Instead, he stepped on the gas in the sixth, firing combinations to Klitschko’s body and head that had the Ukranian hustling backwards for minutes at a time. The rights to Vitali’s body were taking their toll, as he was noticeably less balanced and gasping for breath just past the half-way point in the bout.
The high water mark for Chisora were the middle rounds, where his combos had Klitschko scrambling and disorganized, panicking at the shots he was taking and unable to formulate a strategy.
It wasn’t until the ninth that Klitschko managed to fortify his relentless retreat, incorporating a pause in his backpeddaling during which he’d fire his most trusted weapon – the right hand - at the charging Chisora. It was the firewall tactic that did enough to slow Chisora down slightly, and allowed Klitschko to score points, if not pain, on his opponent.
All reasonable accounts of Chisora’s last fight against Robert Helenius in Finland rightly note Helenius’s points win was a robbery that should have gone the other way. But during that bout, Chisora foreshadowed a lack of urgency and let time slip away from him that could have been used to make a difference on the scorecards. Against Klitschko, when logic would tell him to pour it on, the Brit’s rhythm again never changed after the sixth - even when the WBC’s open scoring policy revealed the scorecards were heavily slanted against him.
Instead, Dereck paced forward only to be pecked by the escaping Vitali in response. Klitschko again relied on occassional crowd-stirring rights to seal up the rest of the rounds and the fight.
It’s hard to argue Klitschko didn’t deserve the decision, as Chisora did not do enough to win, even on unbiased cards. Vitali, however, did not come close to knocking his opponent out, and took the most punishment he’s received since losing to Lennox Lewis in 2003. By consequence, in just his 18th professionally fight, Chisora became only the fourth man to ever go 12 rounds with Vitali. In the process, he showed plenty of potential, if he’s able to harness it.
But hat’s a large “if.” Chisora has shown his fearlessness by stepping into other people’s backyards (Helenius’s Helsinki and Vitali’s Munich) and playing to win, but his coping mechanism for the adversity (being a jerk) borders on reckless. Vitali said after the fight that Chisora was not a gentleman, which is fine, because he’s a fighter and he doesn’t have to be. But if he keeps on pouring his emotions out in public without getting wins to show for it, the shock to his career could be too much.
After the decision in the ring, Wlad and Vitali both exchanged words and chest bumps with Chisora, and mud was slung. Meanwhile, early reports from the post-fight press conference indicate Chisora even went further off the chain, threatening Haye and Vitali. (UPDATE: Sports Illustrated is reporting Haye and Chisora actually fought).
We know Chisora can hurt the best, but he hasn’t proven he can decisively beat them. Unless he piles up some quality wins, his record will swing him to the wrong side of the line in determining whether he is another shit-talking punk or a talented villain.
Vitali, on the other hand, left future opponents salivating at his revealed flaws. Haye barked that he should be next in line for the lesser Klitschko, while Vitali himself promised fights to both Haye and Chisora in an interview after the bout. Chisora lambasted himself for losing to experience and not working hard enough. It’s hard to see Haye doing any better after his flop against Wlad, but the business side of boxing could likely push that fight and – having been hurt for the first time in years – so will Vitali.
JUDGES: 118-110, 118-110, 119-11
STIFF JAB: 116-112