Klitschko defended himself

Ukrainian heavyweight Vladimir Klitschko defended his IBF and IBO titles. At the same time, he took revenge for his defeat three years ago against American Lamon Brewster.

The fight started at a very fast pace. Having withstood the American’s starting attack, Klitschko Jr. carried out several precise combinations at the end of the first round, somewhat shocking his opponent, RIA Novosti comments.

In the sixth round, Brewster tried several times to carry out his signature blow: a left side on a jump, but all these “shots” went wide. Nevertheless, Klitschko’s right blows hit the target, and after them the title contender literally flew several meters away. It all ended quite unexpectedly: after the end of the sixth round, Brewster's coaching staff asked the referee to stop the fight.

31-year-old Vladimir Klitschko had his 52nd fight in the professional ring, winning his 49th victory (44 ahead of schedule). He won the IBF world title in April 2006 by defeating American Chris Byrd. Since then, he has defended his championship belt three times in fights against two other US boxers - Calvin Brock, Ray Austin and Brewster.

In the fight between Klitschko and Krüster on April 10, 2004, the American barely escaped early defeat in the fourth round when Klitschko knocked him down. However, in the fifth round the Ukrainian found himself on the floor twice, after which the fight was stopped. The Ukrainian started that fight well, but, as it might seem, in the middle he began to rapidly lose strength. Immediately after the fight, there was even a version that some substances were added to the water that Klitschko drank before the fight.

At the moment, all world heavyweight boxing champion titles are retained by athletes from the post-Soviet space: Russians Oleg Maskaev and Sultan Ibragimov hold the WBC and WBO championship belts, respectively, Ruslan Chagaev from Uzbekistan holds the WBA, and Vladimir Klitschko holds the IBF.

Earlier in Cologne, Russian boxer Zaurbek Baysangurov became the European champion in junior middleweight. In a tough 12-round fight, he defeated the Frenchman Hussein Bayram on points. The fight turned out to be equal and difficult: both boxers acted in a forceful manner. The Russian did not look too good in the early rounds, going head first, and in the 7th round he was deducted a point for striking after the referee's command to stop. However, Baysangurov looked more active in the last, so-called “championship” rounds and managed to win.

The weigh-in procedure took place on Friday in Cologne, reports Soviet Sport. Klitschko's weight is 109.35 kg, Brewster's weight is 102.15 kg