Wladimir Klitschko dominates again

BERN, Switzerland - Wladimir Klitschko stopped Tony Thompson in the sixth round to keep a comfortable hold on his WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight titles Saturday.

The 36-year-old Klitschko (58-3, 51 knockouts) floored Thompson with a big right hand near the end of the fifth round at Stade de Suisse, and the 40-year-old American never recovered.

The Ukrainian champion dropped Thompson again in the sixth, and referee Sam Williams gave the challenger a standing count before stopping the fight at 2:56.

"Thompson was not so easy to box. I'm satisfied," Klitschko said.

In 2008, Klitschko stopped Thompson in the 11th round.

Thompson, the mandatory challenger nominated by the IBF, fell to 36-3 (24 KOs).

After the fight, Klitschko led the 22,000 crowd in signing "Happy Birthday" to trainer Emanuel Steward, who turned 68 on Saturday.

"Tony Thompson is very hard to hit," Steward said. "Tony was watching Wladimir's right hand all night."

A cagey first round was followed by a scrappy second, as Klitschko twice wrestled Thompson to the floor.

Thompson briefly stepped up his cautious tactics when landing a left to Klitschko's face in the third.

Klitschko finally landed a long, straight right in the fifth, and the round ended with Thompson struggling on the ropes.

The champion cornered Thompson toward the end of the sixth and landed punches to the head, though no single blow appeared to cause serious damage.

"I got caught, but I'm OK," Thompson said. "He's strong, and he's world heavyweight champion for a reason."

Klitschko extended the domination of the heavyweight ranks he shares with his older brother, Vitali.

Vitali was in his brother's corner as usual and acted as cheerleader in the third round, urging on fans in the soccer stadium when the first chants of "Klitschko! Klistchko!" stirred.

The elder Klitschko will defend his WBC title against Manuel Charr of Germany on Sept. 8 in Moscow.

■ DONAIRE TOPS MATHEBULA - At Carson, Calif., Nonito Donaire added the IBF 122-pound title to his WBO belt with a unanimous decision over South Africa's Jeffrey Mathebula, earning his 28th consecutive victory in a unification bout.

Former middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik also got a comfortable unanimous decision over Will Rosinsky at the Home Depot Center south of Los Angeles.

Donaire (29-1, 18 knockouts), the four-division champion born in the Philippines and raised in California's Bay Area, landed bigger shots and showed more aggression throughout the bout. He knocked down Mathebula (26-4-2) with a vicious left hook in the fourth round, but Mathebula used his 4½-inch height advantage and a tremendous work rate to keep the bout competitive.

The Filipino Flash finished with a strong 12th round and won comfortably on all three judges' cards by scores of 117-110, 118-109 and 119-108.

Although Pavlik (40-2, 34 KOs) didn't dazzle, he won his fourth straight bout since taking a year off from boxing after losing his two middleweight belts to Sergio Martinez in April 2010. Pavlik has rebuilt his career and his life after breaking free of bad influences in his native Youngstown, Ohio, and moving his training camp to Ventura, Calif., under Robert Garcia's training.

Pavlik's victory over Rosinsky (16-2) was his second fight in four weeks, and the former champ persevered through a cut above his left eye to pick apart the Queens EMT with big edges in power punches (45-33) and total punches landed (227-159).