Wladimir Klitschko's Great 5: The scary fight he threw at Chagaev

Wladimir Klitschko's Great 5: The scary fight he threw at Chagaev

The easy victory over Ruslan Chagaev in front of more than 61 thousand in Gelsenkirchen

Without a doubt, Wladimir Klitschko is one of the most dominant heavyweight boxers of this century. The Ukrainian has nearly 20 defenses of his world title in the division. He has played a number of quality matches that leave the fans in front of the TVs and in the halls breathless. In a series of articles, we recall the top five of Wladimir's best matches in the professional ring. We have already shared about the meetings with Kubrat Pulev in 2014 and his first match with Samuel Peter in 2005.

The third fight that has a place in our ranking is his meeting with the Uzbek Ruslan Chagaev. We already talked about the fact that Klitschko likes to inflict first losses on his opponents, and the situation with Chagaev is the same. The boxer from Andijan had 25 wins and 1 draw in the professional ring before his meeting with Vladimir, but he was significantly inferior in height to the winner of three world titles at the time opponent. Chagaev is only 185 centimeters tall, which is 13 less than Klitschko, and weighs 7 kilograms less. The only advantage he may have is his reverse guard, which still takes time to get used to.

The fight with Chagaev took place on June 20, 2009, but initially Klitschko was supposed to meet the former light heavyweight world champion David Haye, who withdrew due to a back injury. Twenty days earlier, Chagaev failed the medical tests before the rematch with Nikolay Valuev for the title of the World Boxing Association, and this distinction was taken from the business card of the Uzbek. After these events, Vladimir and Ruslan agreed on a fight at the Feltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen, in which the honors of the Ukrainian were at stake, namely the belts of the International Boxing Federation, the World Boxing Organization and the International Boxing Organization, as well as the vacant title of the Ring magazine ".

Over 61,000 tickets for the stadium, which hosts the Schalke 04 football team, have been sold out, making the match the most watched live in Germany since 1939, when Max Schmeling knocked out Adolf Heuser in front of 70,000 in Stuttgart.

During the match, Klitschko's dominance is evident in every part and it is only a matter of time before the Uzbek is knocked out. The height difference between the two allows the Ukrainian to keep his opponent at a distance and avoid his blows. The attractiveness of the meeting comes down to the fact that the holder of three world titles is playing with his opponent, who at any moment can receive a powerful right hand and fall helplessly in the ring. At the end of the second part, this is exactly what happens, but still Chagaev escapes and even becomes the more aggressive of the two after that moment. After the sixth part, even two of the judges awarded a round for the Uzbek, but after less than six minutes there was already an open wound above Chagaev's eye.

The ninth round is also the last in the match, because it is not visible how Klitschko can be knocked down, and the knockout is the only option for success for the boxer from Uzbekistan. After the serious wound, the large number of blows received and the apparent lack of any chances, Chagaev's trainer Michael Timm did not allow him to start the tenth part. Thus, Klitschko won after a technical knockout after 27 minutes in the ring, and the results in the cards of the three judges were, respectively, 88:82, 90:79 and 89:81. The Ukrainian puts a fourth championship belt around his waist, and for Chagaev, the disappointment of the fact that he has become one of Klitschko's easiest victims remains.

After this success, many fans and experts consider Wladimir the absolute champion, even though he does not hold the WBA title. Still, Klitschko has defeated the last winner of the award. Either way, this is one of the most convincing successes of the Ukrainian boxer, which reinforces his class.

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