Ladies and gentlemen, we finally have a true heavyweight champion, with Wladimir Klitschko taking the Ring Belt with a 10th round TKO over Ruslan Chagaev. Klitschko improves to 53-3 (47 KOs), Chagaev suffers his first loss, dropping to 25-1-1 (17 KOs).
"You dominated the fight from the word 'go'" "Uhh...yeah. I did." Heh.
But he's not wrong. I watched the fight, and Klitschko simply dominated the fight from start to finish, mostly with his lethal left jab. It wasn't the most entertaining display, but over the past few years it has shown itself to be well-nigh unbeatable -- I can't remember the last time I've seen Klitschko ever seriously threatened inside the ring. And so it was tonight, facing probably the best heavyweight in the division outside the Klitschko brothers, Wladimir was in control post to post, including a second round knockdown. I don't know who in the division even poses a major challenge. A fight with David Haye or Cristobal Arreola would be entertaining, to be sure, but I can't imagine it wouldn't end by anything but Klitschko knockout.
So while it's good that we have a true champ in the division, it is equally true that the heavyweights are still not going to be providing the marquee fights in the sport of boxing. But that does nothing to dissipate Klitschko's accomplishments. He just might be the single most dominant man for his division in the sport today.
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