Axel Schulz (26-3-1) challenged WBA Inter-Continental heavyweight champion and former Olympic gold medallist Wladimir Klitschko (28-1) for the European and WBA Inter-Continental heavyweight titles.

Date: 25 September 1999
Venue: Kölnarena, Cologne, Germany
Referee: Daniel Van de Wiele

After four knockout wins, the most recent coming against Joseph Chingangu, Wladimir had regained some of the momentum lost in his defeat to Ross Puritty, and now took the plunge on the biggest fight of his professional career. Over 18,000 fans packed out the new Kölnarena and there was no question of who they had come to see – since his defeat to Michael Moorer three years before, Schulz had won five on the bounce, including victories over Jose Ribalta, Kevin McBride and Julius Francis, but had been knocked down for the first time in his career in his previous fight against Richard Mason. Victory in that bout meant he now had the chance to win the European title belt he was denied in 1992-93, when he twice fought Henry Akinwande, slipping to a draw and a defeat. This was all set up to be a decisive fight in both boxers’ careers, and so it would prove to be.

Alas, above all else it quickly turned into a very one-sided fight. The partisan crowd cheered every time Schulz landed a blow on Wladimir, but luckily for their voices this was very rare – Wladimir was elusive, displaying good movement, keeping Schulz at range with his jab, and pacing himself much better than against Puritty. He managed to hurt Schulz in the fifth, and for a moment it looked as if the home fighter had no answer, but he survived the round. However, by that point the fight was already lost. In the eighth, Wladimir landed a straight right, catching Schulz off-balance and sending him down for only the second time in his career. It initially seemed only a flash knockdown, but Schulz was weary and as the round drew to a close, he found himself backed into the ropes taking blow after a blow. As he slumped to the canvas for the second time, the referee stepped in.

It was by far the biggest win of Wladimir’s professional career so far, making a huge statement in his adopted country with a comfortable win over a former world title challenger. He would soon be fighting in the US against another – former Lennox Lewis opponent Phil Jackson, who he would knock out in the second round – before closing out the year with a successful first defence of his new European belt against Hungarian Lajos Eros, also inside two rounds. But for Schulz, this would be the end of the road – aside from a disappointing comeback in 2006, with a defeat to Brian Minto, the fight against Wladimir effectively marked the end of his career at the age of 30.

Winner: Wladimir Klitschko (by TKO R8)

It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge two tragedies that occurred in boxing over the past couple of days. The first was the death of Bert Cooper, twice a heavyweight world title challenger, who died after a battle with pancreatic cancer at the age of just 53. Cooper lived an extraordinary life in boxing, much of which is detailed in this great article here, but will be best remembered for his underdog performance against Evander Holyfield, where he stepped in at short notice in place of Francesco Damiani and knocked down the undisputed heavyweight champion for the first time in his career.

The second was the death of former judge and HBO broadcaster Harold Lederman, who also died after a battle with cancer at the age of 79. In the short time that I’ve been watching HBO’s coverage of boxing through the 1990s, I’ve grown to really appreciate Harold’s warmth and passion for the sport, one of the aspects that made the American coverage so enjoyable and why I usually prefer watching it to the British coverage. Having now watched a decade of heavyweight fights I didn’t see live at the time, the HBO team of the 1990s now feels very familiar to me, and there was something very heartening when I watched HBO’s coverage of Canelo-GGG to find Jim Lampley still leading and Lederman still scoring. HBO dropped its boxing coverage at the end of 2018, only a few weeks before I published my first article on this blog, but the immense archive of coverage now found online testifies to the skill and enthusiasm of the HBO team, and in particular Harold Lederman. Both he and Bert Cooper will be sadly missed.