By Johnny Walker
The heavyweight champion of the world and a man who wants to be heavyweight champion of the world both looked very impressive in outings today in Bern, Switzerland and Bristol, England.
In Bern, world champion Wladimir Klitschko made shorter work of Tony Thompson than he did back in 2008, when he stopped the American challenger in round eleven.
After a cautious opening round, the champion, spurred on by trainer Emanuel Steward, started to fight with an aggression that has not always been so pronounced during his championship reign. Time and again he landed his trademark right hand bombs on Thompson’s face and body, and disdainfully pushed Thompson to the mat twice in round two when the challenger attempted to tie him up.
Thompson provided some competition for the champ in round three, landing two hard left hands. But from round four on, it seemed a mere matter of time before Thompson hit the deck, as Klitschko stalked him menacingly and strafed him with more big right hands.
A crushing Klitschko right to Thompson’s chin finally did the trick near the end of round five, and the dazed challenger did well to get to his feet and survive the round. He was still wobbly when the sixth round commenced, as Wlad loaded up and prepared to end the show. Two more big right hands from Wlad and Thompson was reeling, out on his feet, and a finishing flurry from the champ saw Thompson go down in the corner for the final time, making Klitschko (58-3-0, 51 KOs) the winner at 2:56 of round six in a stellar performance.
In Bristol, a svelte and fit looking Tyson Fury battered American journeyman Vinny Maddalone from start to finish of their fight, which took place at the same time as the Klitschko bout in Switzerland.
Rising heavyweight Fury (19-0-0, 14 KOs) basically battered Maddalone into submission, winning by a TKO at 1:35 of round five. With the victory, Fury takes home the vacant WBO Inter-Continental heavyweight belt.
After the fight, Fury’s promoter Mick Hennessey said that Fury would be back in November, hopefully against Polish star Tomasz Adamek.
