Boxing: Vitali retains title with ease as Haye showdown looms

It took Vitali Klitschko less than a minute to take control of his latest World Boxing Council heavyweight fight and another 10 rounds to end Albert Sosnowski's suffering on Saturday night in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

Klitschko never lost a round, hardly took a punch and certainly never took a risk until it was safe to lumber forward over his front foot to pulverise Sosnowski in the 10th round. The referee, Jay Nady, waved it off with his eyes as Sosnowski, who was born in Poland but has lived in Essex for 12 years, slumped on to the damp canvas in his own corner.

The painful end came when Sosnowski had exhausted himself with his ultimately futile efforts at getting close to Klitschko, who had just swayed back and calmly tucked away his exposed head and chin before countering with a simple jab that repeatedly hurt poor Sosnowski; the rights began flowing as Sosnowski faded.

Klitschko and his younger brother Wladimir, who holds a trio of world heavyweight belts, are fast running out of willing challengers and will soon have to meet fighters who will pose considerably more risk, such as the World Boxing Association champion David Haye.

Sadly, there is not one single young American left on the heavyweight block as the best quartet of Kevin Johnson, Chris Arreola, Tony Thompson and Eddie Chambers all failed to win a single round in recent world title fights against either Vitali or Wladimir. Sosnowski joins the four Americans, the Cuban Juan Carlos Gomez and the Nigerian Sam Peter as fighters that did very little to prove that they were worthy of a shot at the title in the first place.