By Allan Fox: The World Boxing Council has given WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (45-2, 41 KO’s) another extension to decide on when he’ll be fighting again or if he’ll be fighting again. Vitali needs until December 15th to make a decision and the WBC has granted him permission for the second extension.
The WBC was asked by Vitali to give him until November 30th originally for him to tell them what his plans are for this WBC title, which he hasn’t defended in the past 15 months since September 2012 when he defeated Manuel Charr of Germany for his 2nd consecutive optional title defense. Vitali hasn’t defended against a mandatory challenger for over 2 years since he beat Tomasz Adamek in September 2011.
WBC executive secretary Mauricio Sulaiman said this via Fightnews “The WBC board of governors has accepted to extend the time until December 15 to have the final decision regarding heavyweight division. The holiday season was fundamental for this delay in communications.”
It’s unclear what is delaying Vitali from announcing his future intentions as far as the WBC title. It could be that he wants to have a fight put together so that he can announce it or could be for some other reason why he’s delaying his decision.
Vitali has plans on running for the president of Ukraine in the near future. Some boxing fans feel that his political career is getting in the way of him defending his WBC title on a regular basis. Whatever the case, Vitali has defended the title in ages and the WBC has seemingly bent over backwards to give him chances to his title by not stepping in and giving him the Emeritus status like they tend to do with fighters that have injuries or who haven’t defended their belt for a long period of time.
If Vitali does decide to keep his WBC belt, then he’ll need to defend it against his mandatory challenger Bermane Stiverne. If Vitali fights someone else, he would need the WBC to grant him permission to do so. Given the WBC’s patient attitude towards Vitali, it’s possible that he could get permission to have a 3rd consecutive optional title defense of his WBC title if he asks.
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