American boxing fans are still sulking over the fact that their big black men are no longer ruling the boxing world, and have largely tuned out of the heavyweight boxing scene, which has been owned by Eastern Europeans since Lenox Lewis saw them coming and Emanuel Steward said, “Boy, you need to get your black ass back to Jamaica or wherever it was you came from ‘cause I’m gonna buy me one of these big Russians and teach him how to box!”

The fight this past Saturday night was brutally intense as the bone crushing power of the younger Klitschko brother was palpable. Every time he hit the very durable—and also huge—Pulev with a jab, a right, or God forbid one of those hooks [more about those next] the Bulgarian’s face looked like Jersey Joe Walcott’s pudding face picture sustained against Marciano. Eventually after four knockdowns Pulev’s face did not reform in time for the ref to even consider counting and it was over.

The taped hand in the boxing glove is a weapon. These guys compress the padding in those gloves backstage, and there is not much to begin with. 10 ounce gloves on giants like Pulev and Klitschko are like normal men fighting with the ancient Greek hand gear of the Hellenistic and Roman eras, which was basically a leather cast. Also, that 10 ounce glove on Klitschko is very much like the heavyweights of 100 years ago fighting with their six ounces of horse hair and leather.

The style in which Emanuel Steward and his successor have trained Klitschko, and also the style in which Pulev heroically challenged him, are throw back styles. Klitschko is using modern boxing hand mechanics and bare-knuckle boxing lower body mechanics and clinching techniques. Pulev was fighting in the same style as the shorter Old Time heavyweights like Langford, which is also reflected in ancient Athenian high handed boxing.

The announcers are missing a few things but do note Klitschko’s flexed rear leg with the foot out to 90 degrees, which keeps his chin lower and back, which is a must for a tall heavyweight.

Either from this guard or his occasional low lead hand fencing guard, the giant champion paws and stabs alternately with his lead, just as the old timers and the ancients did with their lethal hand gear. When the right is thrown the rear leg does a full pivot [which would be dangerous to the knee on carpet] and raises his hip, slamming that big Ukrainian ass right into the eye via that shock absorbent gauntlet.

Pulev was using a high extended lead hand, which he kept rotating. The stupid announcers thought he was screwing up and trying to catch a fist with the glove. What he was doing was denying the cross. A tall powerful man who has a strong light glove can afford to slam crosses into the skull as they will land flush on the fist for him. And if he catches the temple, the ear, or any part of the jaw—good night. That gambit kept him in the fight but since he was not as mobile as Klitschko and stayed in front of him, set him up for the champion’s brutal crushing hooks.

The Klitschko hook is delivered either on the toes with a ‘dance pivot’ which is really frightening to see at that size, or with the bent rear leg pulling and the lead foot pivoting, in the way one would step left throwing a cutoff hook, but digging it instead. The champion lets his weight follow through [like Duran and Chavez used to maul opponents] his punch and uses his cross face to shove the hurt man to the floor. These are brutal light glove and bare-knuckle boxing methods. Klitschko’s duct taped wrists touched Pulev as much as the leather over his knuckles. That short chopping hook from inside is designed to clip the jaw or sink into an eye and has little chance of running into a dangerous skull.

Whether you are interested in ancient, bare-knuckle or old time boxing, or just in ancient weaponry, view this fight. When you do, it will soon be clear that this is not an unarmed encounter, but a gauntlet fight. In about 70 A.D. a famous fighter named Melenkomas, whose father was a champion, met Iatrokles in a bout in Naples that likely differed little from this one.

The ancient boxer was famously light on his feet as is Klitschko, towered above normal men, was as strong as a wrestler, and used his forearms in the clinch, not his hands. I have seen no boxing match in the modern ring that, to my mind, better evokes the sense of dread felt by the ancient bystanders, or the mechanics used by the fighters of long ago, than Klitschko versus Pulev.