Safety-First Wlad Downs Too-Small Sultan

Now we know why there wasn't much buzz going in to the heavyweight consolidation faceoff between Wladimir Klitschko and Sultan Ibragimov at New York's Madison Square Garden on Saturday evening. Because boxing fans knew in their gut that what we saw was likely to happen.

Klitschko, the methodical Ukrainian, spent most of the 12 rounds scouting out his undersized foe, keeping him at bay with karate chop slaps to negate his jab, and tossing a smattering of jabs and the odd right hand to convince the judges that he was the better man.

It was a less than stellar performance by the perfectionist Ibragimov, who gave the comparatively tiny Ibragimov the sort of respect that Sultan gave 45-year old Evander Holyfield last year.

The judges, who all deserve slaps on the back for not breaking into booing as those in the stands did regularly, gave it to Klitschko 119-110, 117-111, 118-110. But there were plenty of rounds that could have been scored even. The hesitant Ibragimov, showing little of the advertised courageousness, or hand speed, or craftiness, and the intermittently effective Klitschko, mired in a defensive mode for 95% of the night, both showed why this division elicits so little excitement.

Ibragimov, who wore the heel tag--he drew boos when shown on the Jumbotron warming up and when he came to the ring--weighed in at 219 pounds , while Wladimir tipped the scale at 238.

At stake were Wlad's IBF belt and Sultan's WBO strap, though Michael Buffer announced that the winner would be deemed the undisputed champion, which would be news to Messrs. Maskaev, Peter and Chagaev.