Klitschko vs Chagaev Prediction

Ahead of the heavyweight title fight between Wladimir Klitschko and Ruslan Chagaev I have a few words on how I predict the fight will come out. This is assuming the fight doesn't at the last second get cancelled due to Chagaev suffering an injury or not passing any last minute test.

I think this fight is a total mismatch. Sure Chagaev is good, but I don't think he is as good as he was mainly due to inactivity due to injuries and health issues. Even if he was in perfect mind and body I think that his style minus being a southpaw is a perfect match up for Wladimir.

I think he's a perfect match up because his ability to move in is not going to work with the faster on his feet Wladimir and he does not have that great of a defense to overcome the speed of Wladimir's punches. He will not be able to get inside to do combos, and I don't think he has the power to luck out on a hayemaker on Wladimir. Any chance he has of trying to rush Wladimir will be met with too much power. If he does get inside he's not going to be able to wrestle or push around Wladimir. So I think Chagaev is in deep water.

Chagaev has had experience fighting taller fighters as seen when he defeated Nicolai Valuev the 7 foot behemoth, but moving against the slow and plodding Valuev and moving against Klitschko who is also much taller are 2 different things.

I see Chagaev using some good angles for the 1st couple rounds and not getting hit with anything too substantial, but still eating some jabs and getting frustrated at the great footwork of Wladimir. Wladimir will continue to stay out of range and I think that it is inevitable that Chagaev will have to keep a higher than normal pace due to the foot speed of Wladimir which will open himself up more for shots and slow his own pace. I think Chagaev can take a good shot so I predict the fight will most likely be a TKO victory for Wlad where the ref sees enough of the determined Chagaev getting beaten and stops the fight. I think this will happen around round 5.

So my prediction is Wladimir by 5th round TKO over Chagaev.

Tags: Wladimir Klitschko, Wladimir Klitschko Opponents, Fight Predictions, Klitschko Blog