Note that the extremely tough and strong—and not short, just not tall enough—Pulev uses a high extended lead which he cycles around. This is an old time boxing techniques for denying the chin to the taller man’s right. The heavyweight game is mostly about hitting or denying the chin, since just about anyone in the division can KO any man they hit on the chin with authority.

Klitschko denies the chin be keeping his head back behind his lead knee and by using outside rear hand blocks and lead wing blocks. Primarily he avoids being hit because it is hard to deliver a punch when his giant athletic frame is launching leather diagonally across your center line.

Note that Pulev would have been able to go the distance had Klitschko not been armed with a vicious shovel hook, which was also Ali’s overlooked game changer. Once the Ukrainian gets the jab going then the ‘Steel Hammer’ right hand begins punishing.

Note how the towering champion denies the clinch—even shoving his man down—with the follow through cross face, which seems quite nasty.

Once the cross face comes into play then Pulev must try and catch or check the right with his left because the right guard won’t get there in time and would leave the ear open to a Philly hook. When he begins playing the hand game with his left against the right he is doomed, as this opens up his inside line so that the shovel hook can lift his chin. Klitschko’s hand game is almost exactly like the Macedonian battle tactics of Phillip and Alexander; lineal pressure designed to open up a gap to be exploited by an angular blow.

Check out the slow motion of Pulev’s face deforming when hit. For a normal human being eating one of these punches would be like eating the grille of an automobile.