Klitschko Wins Unanimous Decision

Champ Takes Ibragimov's WBO Title

NEW YORK, Feb. 23 -- In front of an electric crowd at Madison Square Garden, International Boxing Federation champion Wladimir Klitschko fought methodically Saturday night, doing just enough to defeat overmatched Sultan Ibragimov in a 12-round unanimous decision.

With the victory before 14,011, the Ukrainian Klitschko improved his record to 50-3 while taking Ibragimov's World Boxing Organization title.

The bout was the first meeting between recognized heavyweight title holders since Lennox Lewis fought a rematch with Evander Holyfield in November 1999.

The judges scored it 119-110, 117-111 and 118-110, all for Klitschko.

Klitschko-Ibragimov, the first heavyweight championship fought at Madison Square Garden without an American participant, drew a largely partisan Klitschko crowd, and both fighters wore red trunks into the ring, symbolic color of the former Soviet Union.

Yet the fight produced a minimum of action as Klitschko, who has held one version of the heavyweight title or another since 2000, did little more in the first round than play whack-a-mole with the left-handed Ibragimov's jab, knocking it down every time the Russian threw it.

The second round proved just as empty and by the end of the third, the boisterous crowd began to boo. The few times the previously undefeated Ibragimov (22-1-1), shorter by three inches at 6 feet 3, launched an attack out of his cautious crouch, his punches appeared to bounce off without effect.

"Ibragimov was very difficult to fight," Klitschko said. "He kept backing off and was very careful. He didn't engage."

Klitschko stalked Ibragimov with a look of disdain on his face, but through the first five rounds didn't come close to living up to his reputation of being a large heavyweight who lets his hands go.

"Vladimir could have thrown more punches, but I wasn't disappointed because Ibragimov is such a difficult opponent," said Klitschko's trainer, Emmanuel Steward.

By the end of the seventh, the crowd's disgust grew. Klitschko fought as if he believed Ibragimov could do nothing to hurt him, and as if he didn't have to do anything more than narrowly win action-free rounds by points.

Klitschko scored a hard right in the eighth round that he followed by slinging Ibragimov to the canvas. With 40 seconds remaining, Klitschko landed his first combination of the fight, and Ibragimov countered moments later with a glancing overhand right.

In the ninth, Klitschko scored a thunderous combination in a neutral corner that almost dropped Ibragimov, but he declined to follow up.

Ibragimov body-slammed Klitschko to the canvas in the 10th round, and the two boxers wrestled at ring center but threw few punches.

Ibragimov did not land a single blow of consequence the entire fight.

"I did not feel hurt, but I did feel Klitschko was winning the fight," Ibragimov said.

While professing a desire to unify the belts and tidy up the division, Klitschko will have a difficult time satisfying the multiple mandatory title defenses of each of boxing's sanctioning organizations, even if he can lure the other belt holders into the ring.

WBA champ Ruslan Chagaev, who is expected to face 7-foot Russian giant Nicolay Valuev, watched the fight from ringside, while Oleg Maskaev and Samuel Peter both were absent, training to meet March 8 for the WBC title March 8 in Cancun, Mexico.