FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Wladimir Klitschko stopped Samuel Peter in the 10th round to retain his IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight titles on Saturday.
Klitschko unleashed a flurry of blows to send the bloodied Peter to the canvas, landing an uppercut and a left hook that put the Nigerian down for good. Referee Robert Byrd began counting but then waved the fight over. The technical KO came 1.22 seconds into the 10th.
The Ukrainian champion controlled the largely ugly fight and was never in real trouble.
Peter floored Klitschko three times in a bout five years ago before losing a unanimous decision but this time Klitschko was firmly in control.
Klitschko improved to 55-3 in his ninth defense of the title. Peter dropped to 34-4.
"He took a lot of punishment and fought until the end," Klitschko said. "But from round two, it was clear that his game plan wasn’t working."
Peter’s plan was to get close and try to hurt Klitschko from inside but the champion weathered the early attempts and Peter tired in the later rounds.
Peter came out aggressively and connected with a left hook to Klitschko’s head before the champion replied with a right late in the opening round.
Klitschko caught Peter with right-left combinations several times in the second and the boxer dubbed the "Nigerian Nightmare" had no response except for some wild roundhouse attempts.
Both fighters spent much of the third and fourth holding each other, without landing a big punch.
Klitschko managed to keep away from the surging Peter in the fifth and hit the Nigerian with several jabs that seemed to worsen the swelling under Peter’s eye.
A big uppercut from Klitschko late in the sixth appeared to shake Peter, but the bell came to his rescue.
Klitschko began hitting Peter almost at will in the seventh and again in the eighth, landing combinations to his head.
The shorter Peter tried to come inside but ended up mostly clinging onto Klitschko as both fighters pushed each other around the ring in the ninth.
The Ukrainian obviously went for the KO in the 10th and stepped up the pressure on Peter. Peter finally went down as he got hit from both sides to the head and the body.
Peter has lost to both Klitschko brothers. Against the elder Vitali, Peter failed to come out for the 9th round in October 2008 to lose his WBC title.
