The Cyber Boxing Zone Newswire


Vitali Klitschko Stops Undefeated Ed Mahone: Fabian Weber

Oberhausen - 10 October 1999. A world champion's first title defense is often an indication, how much that fighter deserved to win the crown. It's a test that many former world heavyweight champions failed to pass. James Douglas, Michael Moorer, Michael Bentt, Frank Bruno: It's just an extraction of a list of former world title holders of the recent past who lost their belt the first time they put it on the line.

With an impressive victory over American Ed Mahone Vitali Klitschko distanced himself from that group on Saturday, when he successfully defended his WBO world heavyweight title with a third round stoppage in front of 11,000 fans at Arena Oberhausen. It took Mahone one and a half minutes into the opening round, before he got his first punches going - a behavior that he described later as part of his game plan. It turned out to be a bad mistake, because by the time Mahone mounted his first attack he had already taken a massive amount of punishment from Klitschko, who went to work aggressively from the opening bell and tagged him with left jabs and right crosses.

As Mahone, 104 kg / 229 lb, tried to be more initiative in round two, he got countered over and again by Klitschko's left hook that he threw while making one side step to his left. A shot to the chin by Klitschko spun Mahone around, followed by the Ukrainian driving him into the ropes as the bell sounded. In the third, Klitschko, 111.5 kg / 246 lb, floored Mahone with a straight right. The American struggled to his feet after an eight count, but was helpless afterward. With referee Rudy Battle yelling "defend yourself" Klitschko drove his shots through Mahone's closed gloves until catching him cleanly again. Mahone got knocked to his knees as his head went through the ropes, leading Battle to stop the fight with 1:15 remaining in the round.

Mahone, who had never been defeated and never been knocked down before, dropped to 21-1-2 (21 KO4s), whereas the undefeated Vitali Klitschko improved to 26-0 (26 KO4s).

"When I came out there I had a game plan", the beaten Mahone commented afterwards. "I wanted to let him tire off a little bit. But the game plan didn't work, because Klitschko was too powerful."

"Mahone has a very good chin, but Vitali was just too strong", Mahone's manager Thomas Loeffler credited Klitschko's performance afterwards.

"Next time I will try to win even faster," the 28-year-old Klitschko said. "I hope I can get a fight soon in the United States against Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield or Lennox Lewis."

"There are many guys, who we would like to fight against", promoter Klaus-Peter Kohl stated. "Vitali will stay active and make another defense of his title in December. Next year we want Vitali Klitschko to fight in the US."

Fabian WeberE-Mail: fabian.weber@boxingnews.de

German Boxing News
http://www.boxingnews.de

Upcoming Fights

Current Champions

Boxing Journal

On-line Encyclopedia

News

Main Page

[Return to Top]