It wasn't pretty.

In fact, it caused veteran HBO analyst Larry Merchant to lament in the second round, "Folks, this is heavyweight boxing. Two whales, wailing away at each other". Lords of the ring they were not (although Sander's left ear made him look like an Orc), but in the end, Vitali Klitschko walked out of the ring with the WBC belt and Corrie Sanders was taken to the hospital because of his injured ear.

In round one, the better conditioned Klitschko looked mechanical, throwing sloppy punches and resembling an octopus when the flabby Sanders rocked him with a big left hand. Sanders, on the other hand, walked around the ring flat-footed; it was clear from the opening moments that his strategy was to land one big punch.

While the third round offered a little more action when the two giants stood and traded, Merchant's comment that "This is the best heavyweight round we've seen...in years!" seemed a bit excessive, though it spoke volumes about the calibre and quality of heavyweight fights lately.

The bout finally came to an end in the 8th round, when Sanders, bloodied and clearly exhausted, couldn't even raise his hands to defend himself from a Klitschko flurry. At that point, the referee stepped in and Vitali Klitschko was awarded a TKO.

When Merchant entered the ring to interview the champion, he was so fatigued he couldn't even speak (his broken English notwithstanding). When he did, he spoke of his dream of becoming heavyweight champion, and his wish to have Lennox Lewis come out of retirement to fight him.

The only problem is that of the three heavyweight beltholders, Klitschko (WBC), Byrd (IBF) and Ruiz (WBA), there is no undisputed heavyweight champion. Of the three, Klitschko appears to be the most deserving of that title- at least the general public thinks so. But it's going to take a while before "the next one" appears like an angel sent from above to save boxing's most important division from obscurity and uneventfulness.