By Eric Thomas: WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (44-2, 40 KO’s) is expected back in the ring in September after injuring his left shoulder during his 12 round unanimous decision win last February over British challenger Dereck Chisora in Munich, Germany.

Although the injury won’t require surgery, it will keep the 40-year-old Vitali out of the ring a little longer than he wanted it to. Vitali will be turning 41 in July, and he needs to get the biggest fights possible before he retires. He doesn’t have time to waste on facing lesser opponents that don’t bring a lot of fans interest or money to the table. The Chisora fight was okay because of Chisora’s marketing ability.

Chisora was able to talk a lot and do a lot of the same things that David Haye was able to do, but things turned sour a day before the fight when Chisora slapped Vitali at the weigh-in. Perhaps that too was a good thing because it drummed up excitement for what a lot of people thought would be a mismatch. In a way, it was a mismatch because Vitali was still able to beat Chisora only using his right hand and winning the fight by the scores of 118-110, 118-110 and 119-111. But Vitali looked exhausted by the end of the fight, worn down by Chisora’s constant pressure, even if it effective pressure due to Chisora’s inability to throw enough punches.

Vitali has made it known that he wants to fight David Haye. The World Boxing Council president Jose Suliaman has already said no to that idea, so if Vitali really wants to fight Haye, he’ll have to try and convince the WBC to say yes to the idea. If not, then Vitali will have to look elsewhere.

The choices for Vitali are pretty slim right now unless he can get one of the younger heavyweights to step up a little earlier than their management wants them to for a title shot.

Here are some of the options for Vitali if he can’t David Haye:

* Denis Boytsov

* David Price

* Tyson Fury

* Bermane Stiverne

* Chauncy Welliver

* Alexander Dimitrenko

* Kubrat Pulev