TalkingBoxing News
Klitschko Out vs. Rahman, Heavyweight Tourney Soon
SUN November 6 - After World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko suffered the latest in a series of training injuries this week that forced him to pull out of a mandatory defense of his title this Saturday in Las Vegas against WBC interim champion Hasim “The Rock” Rahman,
Rahman’s promoter Don King has proclaimed Rahman the undisputed WBC
heavyweight champion and says his longtime goal of creating a
heavyweight
tournament to determine a single, undisputed world heavyweight champion
will
now be achieved.
“Anyone could tell that Vitali did not want to fight Rock,” King said. “This is why I lobbied for Rock’s last fight to be for the WBC interim heavyweight title. The moment Vitali cancelled his scheduled mandatory defense scheduled for November 12, he vacated his title and Rahman immediately assumed his crown according to the rules and regulations of the WBC.”
King added: “I would have preferred for Rahman and Klitschko to have settled there differences in the ring this coming weekend, but nobody seems to be able to make Vitali fight his mandatory defense against Rahman. He seems to prefer to give up his title rather than face Rock.”
Rahman believes the WBC will announce that he is the undisputed WBC heavyweight champion.
“I told WBC President Jose Sulaiman when I became their interim heavyweight champion in August by defeating Monte Barrett that I didn’t think Vitali would fight me. Mr. Sulaiman said that if he pulled out of the fight, he would declare me the WBC champion.
“Thank you, Mr. Sulaiman, for upholding the rules, regulations, honor, dignity and integrity of the WBC, the best sanctioning organization in boxing.”
Rahman added that he was disappointed, but it came as no surprise to him that Klitschko claimed a knee injury suffered in training caused him to pull out of their Nov. 12 match.
“Vitali said we couldn’t fight because he had a leg injury in April
that
spread to his back in July,” Rahman said. “Then he wasn’t well enough
to
fight me in August but he was well enough to want to fight Oleg Maskaev
or
Calvin Brock in September.
“Now he says he’s headed to Colorado to see a knee specialist this week so he can’t fight me on Saturday.”
The necessity for an interim title match occurred after Klitschko postponed three matches with Rahman: April 30 (postponed due to Vitali’s jogging “thigh injury”); June 18 (postponed as Vitali needed more time to recover from “jogging injury”); and July 23 (Vitali’s “thigh injury” spread to his back, necessitating “minor back surgery”) on April 19.
King responded in May by successfully petitioning the WBC to sanction an interim heavyweight championship—at a cost of almost $2 million to Don King Productions—owing to Klitschko’s repeated inability to face his mandatory challenger, Rahman, who earned that position on Nov. 13, 2004, and has been waiting to fight Vitali since that time.
Klitschko inexplicably petitioned the WBC in June asking for an exception to face another fighter on Sept. 24—in effect saying he was healthy enough to fight, just not against Rahman.
The WBC Board of Governors rejected the petition on July 15 and ordered Klitschko to face the WBC interim champion, which was determined on Aug. 13 when WBC No. 1-ranked mandatory challenger Rahman won a unanimous decision over WBC No. 2-ranked, and No. 2 mandatory challenger, Monte “Two Gunz” Barrett.
King now represents all four world heavyweight champions: World Boxing Association champion John “The Quietman” Ruiz; International Boxing Federation champion Chris Byrd; World Boxing Organization champion “Relentless” Lamon Brewster; and Rahman.
Ruiz will meet his mandatory challenger Nicolai Valuev in a previously scheduled match on Dec. 17 in Berlin, Germany. Rahman must next fight an opponent designated by the WBC.
After these matches, King plans to announce a tournament where all world heavyweight champions will fight each other to determine an undisputed champion. He expects the format to be similar to the 1986 box-off that produced the youngest heavyweight champion in history, Mike Tyson, and the 2001 Middleweight World Championship Series, which resulted in the first undisputed middleweight world champion since Marvelous Marvin Hagler held that distinction in 1987.
Klitschko to have knee checked out
SUN November 6 - A terribly disappointed Vital Klitschko plans to fly to Vail, Colo., in the next few days to have his right knee examined by renowned knee specialist and pioneer in cartilage regeneration, Dr. Richard Steadman.
"I want to get another opinion on my knee and Dr. Steadman is known as the best in the world," said the WBC heavyweight champion, who was forced to withdraw from his Nov. 12 title defense against Hasim Rahman because of a knee injury suffered Thursday during sparring in Los Angeles. An MRI was taken Thursday night.
"After reviewing the MRI Friday, Dr. Bert Mandelbaum (of Santa Monica, Calif.) told me that I have at least a torn meniscus and a bone bruise," Klitschko said. "I was examined again on Saturday by (orthopedic surgeon) Dr. Tony Daly. I was fitted with several knee braces and tried to spar. But nothing worked. M knee was just too unstable.
"I want to apologize once again to everyone involved in this fight: Hasim Rahman, the promoters, HBO, all the fans. All of this is very devastating to me. I am not sure anyone can imagine how very sad and depressing this year has been for me because of all of the injuries.
"Next year can only be better. For now, I am just hoping that I will know more by the end of this week when I will be able to return to the ring." Klitschko, who was set to earn in excess of $8 million for defending against Rahman, said entering the ring less than 100 percent was never a consideration.
"There was no absolutely no way I would go into the ring in my current condition," Klitschko said. "Maybe others would have gone in, just for the money. But I am too much of a sportsman for that. I could never betray my fans and the sport of boxing just for a payday, no matter how much it was. I have too much character to enter a fight knowing I am hurt, try and fight a round or two, then quit and go home.
"I would never take the money and run."
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