By Allan Fox: 42-year-old former WBO heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs won’t be able to take the fight against Ruslan Chagaev (32-2-1, 20 KO’s) for the vacant WBA heavyweight title on short notice after all, as there isn’t enough time for Briggs to get ready to fly to Grozny, Russia by Sunday.

So instead of Briggs getting the fight, 34-year-old non-top 15 ranked Alexander Petkovic (49-4-4, 27 KOs) is being looked at as a possible opponent for Chagaev, according to Fightnews.

Petkovic is based out of Germany, and can easily make the flight to Russia for the fight. However, the WBA would have to approve the fight for it to be for the vacant WBA heavyweight title.

Fres Oquendo was originally scheduled to fight Chagaev for the vacant WBA title, but then he pulled out of the fight today for unknown reasons. The originators of the event still wanted the event to take place, and this is why they’ve been looking to find a replacement opponent for Oquendo.

Briggs would have been a good option because of him being a well-known heavyweight, and because he’s in excellent shape after having fought last weekend. But Briggs doesn’t have a travel visa ready for him to fly all the way to Russia right now.

It’s unclear whether the originators of the event would be okay with the Chagaev-Petkovic fight not having the WBA heavyweight title on the line for the fight if the WBA fails to sanction the fight for the WBA heavyweight title. It’s possible that they might not like the idea of their title belt being fought over by someone who isn’t ranked in the top 15 at this time. Petkovic has won his last 10 fights, but he’s done it against weak opposition.

He’s not faced any quality heavyweights during his career, and it would be a big step up for him to be fighting for a world title, even against someone in Chagaev’s class. Chagaev is ranked #3 WBA, but he’s not fought a solid heavyweight since his 12 round decision loss to Alexander Povetkin in 2011. He’s taken it easy with fights against 5 weak opponents since that loss.