Klitschko stops Gomez in 9th to retain WBC title

STUTTGART, Germany — Vitali Klitschko stopped Juan Carlos Gomez in the ninth round Saturday night, easily retaining his WBC heavyweight title.

The 37-year-old champion twice put down the Germany-based Cuban defector, in the seventh and ninth rounds, before the referee Daniel Van de Wiele stopped the fight with 1 minute 11 seconds remaining in the round.

Klitschko (37-2, 36 KOs) was making the first defense of the title he reclaimed by stopping Samuel Peter in dominating fashion last October. The Ukrainian, whose brother, Wladimir, holds two other versions of the title, hasn't lost since getting knocked out by Lennox Lewis in 2003.

"I knew that he was a world-class boxer," Klitschko said of Gomez. "I said before that the fight would not be easy."

At 6 feet 7 inches, Klitschko had a size advantage of more than 3 inches and 19 pounds against his southpaw opponent, who tired in the middle rounds and eventually couldn't move fast enough to get inside Klitschko's long reach.

Gomez (44-2) joked that he had not expected to last so long.

"I thought I gave Vitali a very hard fight, but I realized it wasn't enough," Gomez said. "He was so tall and so heavy."

Gomez, 35, was the mandatory challenger and Klitschko's former sparring partner, and he was trying to become the first heavyweight champ from Cuba.

"I was a little hectic," Klitschko said. "I wanted to end the fight earlier, but I didn't get to hit him enough."

Klitschko said he wants to meet Russian giant Nikolai Valuev, who holds the WBA title, but his next battle might well be in the courtroom.

Klitschko has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland, which will decide whether the WBC can force him into another mandatory defense against Russian former champion Oleg Maskaev.

Wladimir, who was in his brother's corner, holds the IBF and WBO heavyweight titles, and the Klitschkos have long talked about rounding up all the belts between them.