Wladimir Klitschko TKOs Hasim Rahman

Wladimir Klitschko defended his WBO and IBF heavyweight titles in Germany today with a lopsided victory over the American Hasim Rahman, winning by TKO in the seventh round.

Klitschko dominated the early rounds, repeatedly landing hard jabs that Rahman just couldn't answer. In the third round Klitschko so thoroughly dominated that I scored it a 10-8 round even though Rahman never went down. Klitschko eventually wore Rahman down enough to knock him to the canvas in the sixth round -- a round in which Rahman didn't land a clean punch at all. Early in the seventh, Klitschko staggered Rahman, and the ref mercifully stopped it.

Klitschko and his brother Vitali are generally recognized as the two best heavyweights in the world, and although they'll never fight each other, I hope they'll start fighting better opposition than Rahman, who is well past his prime and appeared to be out of shape. Mismatches like this one don't do much to advance heavyweight boxing.

Klitschko improved his record to 52-3 and is now on a 10-fight winning streak. Rahman fell to 45-7-2 and is now 10-5-2 with one no contest since knocking out Lennox Lewis in 2001.