By Jim Dower: WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitscko (45-2, 41 KO’s) is down to his final week before he must let the World Boxing Council know what he plans on doing with his career in terms of defending or vacating his WBC heavyweight belt. At the recent WBC convention in Thailand, the 42-year-old Vitali asked for more time to make his decision.
The WBC gave Vitali until the end of November for him to say what his plans are. It’s unclear why Vitali needed to wait specifically until November 30th for him to say whether he wants to continue on with his career or retire.
If Vitali does choose to continue with his boxing career then he’ll need to make plans on fighting his mandatory challenger Bermane Stiverne in early 2014, because Vitali has been unable to make an agreement with Stiverne in the last few months and it’s been strung out far too long. Stiverne doesn’t understand why the WBC hasn’t stripped Vitali of his title for failing to negotiate a fight with him.
Vitali had the option of fighting David Haye this year, as that was a fight that Haye badly wanted. However, Vitali hasn’t fought at all in 2013 after defending it against little known German based contender Manuel Charr last year in December. With the huge money that Vitali could have made in a Haye fight, it makes you wonder what was going through his mind to take a lower money bout against the likes of Charr. Vitali has always wanted a big money fight during his career, and unfortunately he never had a big named opponent that would bring him that payday. But once he finally had an important fight staring him in the face with David Haye, Vitali opted not to take it and instead has sat idle for an entire year. Instead of fighting Charr, Vitali should have arranged a fight with Haye because that would have been an easy match for Vitali to make.
If Vitali lets the November 30th deadline pass without saying a word to the WBC, then it’s difficult to imagine the WBC not moving forward to strip Vitali of his title and then having Stiverne face the next available contender for the vacant WBC title in early 2014. That wouldn’t be the best way for Vitali to lose his belt, because it’s always nicer if a heavyweight champion vacates the title while on top rather than having it stripped from them due to them failing to defend it on a regular basis.
What’s difficult to understand is why Vitali has sat on the title for the past 14 months without defending it. It doesn’t make a lot of sense for a champion to just sit on a title for over a year and not defend it. It makes you wonder what’s going through Vitali’s mind in keeping the title without defending it.
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