Vitali Klitschko: “I Have A Dream To Fullfill”

Former World Boxing Organization/World Boxing Council heavweight champion Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) reportedly has intentions of being a champion at the same time as his little brother, IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. “I have a dream to fulfill,” Vitali said to the German press recently. Vitali, now 36, hasn’t fought in over three years since beating Danny Williams in 2004. Despite his numerous injuries in 2004, four of them that caused the cancellation of his title defense against then challenger Hasim Rahman, along with Vitali’s recent back injury while training for his comeback bout against Jameel McCline, which led to yet another cancellation of a bout, he still hopes to rule the division.

“I feel like a 20-year-old,” Vitali said, sounding like a person not fully grounded on reality. It seems that it hasn’t registered with Vitali that his body can no longer get him through training anymore, and he is living perhaps in denial. Under ideal circumstances, Vitali will challenge either Samuel Peter or Oleg Maskaev for the WBC heavyweight title sometime next year, but that’s still a only remotely possible at this point.

Unless Vitali somehow changes his training program, perhaps sparring less and running in more warmer climates, he’ll likely continue to experience breakdowns and fight cancellations. Of course, if that happens, he can forget about challenging for another title, because he won’t be given any other free shots at a title after this one time shot. Next time, he’ll have to earn it by beating other top challengers. Not likely, given his inability to make it through any kind of training.