World heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko is aiming to improve his knockout rate when he defends his WBC belt in Poland tomorrow, while his coach Fritz Sdunek says he expects him to retire soon.

The 40-year-old can expect to have few friends among the 42,000 fans expected at the Miejski Stadium in Wroclaw when he takes on home favourite and mandatory challenger Tomasz Adamek for the World Boxing Council belt.

With 39 knockouts in 42 victories and two defeats, Klitschko has one of the highest knockout rates in boxing at 88 per cent and says he will do all he can to stop the fight going the 12 rounds.

“I will give my best to improve my knockout rate,” he said.

“The only thing I can promise is that there will be no questions after the fight about who won the battle.”

Alongside younger brother Vladimir, who holds the IBF, WBO and WBA titles, the Klitschkos dominate the division and the Ukrainian will have a 15kg weight and 11-inch height advantage over Adamek, who is six years younger.

This will be the elder Klitschko’s first fight since he turned 40 in July and he admits references to his age now feel like “verbal low blows” as he prepares for the seventh defence of the title he won against Samuel Peter in Berlin in 2008.

His coach Sdunek says he expects Klitschko to box on for only two or three more fights with a possible future opponent likely to be David Haye.

“He will have two or three more fights, I do not think he will have more,” Sdunek said. “Certainly he is not getting any younger and his political work costs him a lot of time.

“Anyway, he has never been so fit and strong and the way he makes younger boxers look silly is crazy.”