Time for a new division, the Super-Heavyweights
The size difference between Vitali Klitschko and the challenger, Albert Sosnowski (right) was too great.
Pre-fight most boxing fans were claiming the Vitali Klitschko versus Albert Sosnowski match had no real appeal and as it turns out, they were right. Once again, one of the Klitschko brothers dominated the lighter and shorter foe. Vitali Klitschko did what he needed to do. He kept Sosnowski at a distance, and then systematically broke him down.
What else could we expect? The outcome of these David versus Goliath fights are becoming a foregone conclusion. In Saturday’s matchup, Vitali Klitschko was five inches taller, 23 pounds heavier and definitely more skilled than his opposition.
It’s becoming routine; you just knew Klitschko would eventually wear the Pole down until finally in the later rounds, in this case the 10th round; he knocked his opponent off his feet.
Like most fighters who finally get their one big shot at the title, Sosnowski made the most of his opportunity and kept throwing punches at the giant as if by some strange happenstance the tall timber would fall. Though Klitschko won virtually every round, Sosnowski did have his moments, especially when he caught Klitschko coasting in the eighth round.
After getting a warning from his corner, Klitschko stepped it up in the ninth round and landed several of his downhill flurries, punch combinations that can be devastating. By the end of that ninth round, Sosnowski showed signs of being in trouble, especially when he was backed up against the ropes.
The end of the road came quickly in the 10th round, when Klitschko started doubling up with those heavy hands to the head, and finally dropped Sosnowski to the canvas. Everyone, including the referee, Jay Nady, could see that Sosnowski was powerless and could go no further.
With the win, Klitschko moved to 40 wins, two losses and 0 draws, 38 wins by knockout. Sosnowski (45-3-1, 27 KO’s) now joins the ever expanding list of Klitschko victims; the wee people who should petition the various boxing commissions for a new weight class, for boxers like Tomasz Adamek, Albert Sosnowski, Brian Minto, David Haye, etc. who are under six-foot four inches tall and weigh less than 250 lbs. With human beings getting bigger, taller and living longer, it’s a no-brainer that the sport of boxing has to adjust for this societal trend.
In the lower divisions, the boxing commissions make a distinction of just three pounds between a super-flyweight and a bantamweight, three pounds between a junior-flyweight weight and a flyweight and five pounds between a super-featherweight and a lightweight. It seems absurd, unimaginable, that they wouldn’t show the same respect for the big boys and at least make a cut-off every 30 pounds in the heavyweight division. The time has come.
