By Scott Gilfoid: WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman is looking forward in great anticipation to a heavyweight unification fight in the near future between WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (34-0, 33 KOs) and IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (64-3, 53 KOs).
Sulaiman believes the Klitschko-Wilder fight could take place by 2017. Wladimir and Deontay both have a lot to do before then. Wilder has a title defense coming against former WBA heavyweight belt holder Alexander Povetkin next year, as well as a voluntary defense on September 26th.
Wladimir has a defense coming against his WBO mandatory challenger Tyson Fury (24-0, 18 KOs) later on this year before he can even think about getting in the ring with the talented Wilder.
“It’s definitely one of the biggest fights that can be made in boxing, but Kllitschko has many responsibilities for the three titles given. Right now he [Wladimir] has a mandatory against Tyson Fury,” Sulaiman said via espn.com.mx. “If he wins will surely have another mandatory, but we’ll see that fight not until 2017,” said Sulaiman.
Wilder vs. Klitschko will be a huge fight when it takes place. One can only hope that Wladimir has enough left to make it an interesting fight when they do meet up with each other. If the fight doesn’t take place until 2017, as Sulaiman predicts, then Wladimir will be 41-years-old by that point, and ready for Wilder to take the heavyweight baton from him as the best heavyweight on the planet.
Deontay has the height at 6’7”, quickness and punching power to give Wladimir nightmares. If the fight were to be made now, Wladimir would have huge problems with Deontay’s speed, size and power. But if it takes place two years from now, I think it would almost impossible for Wladimir to be able to keep his titles.
Deontay is getting stronger while Wladimir is getting older and weaker. That’s why it’s in Wladimir’s best interest to try and make the Wilder-Klitschko fight take place as soon as possible before he ages further and becomes too old to compete against Deontay.
“The heavyweights have lost the brilliance that took many years, but Wilder may be the champion that people have been waiting for,” Sulaiman said. “He is an extraordinary champion and certainly to face and beat Klitschko will fill the void that has been for years.”
Having an exciting heavyweight world champion like Deontay Wilder as the heavyweight world champion will give boxing fans an interesting heavyweight champ for a change. The sport has missed that in the last decade with Wladimir as the champion, as he’s taken a lot of soft fights, and he’s played it safe by not looking to slug with his opponents. Many of Wladimir’s fights have seen him use a lot of holding to shut down his opponent’s offense. It’s quite boring to many boxing fans, and that’s why it’ll be a new era and a whole different thing to have someone like Wilder as the unified world champion.
It’s still too early to know right now how exciting Wilder will be as the unified heavyweight champion. But if he continues to KO his opponents like he’s been doing the past six years, then he’s going to be a huge star.
http://www.espn.com.mx/news/story/_/id/2396339/esperan-a-wilder-klitschko-en-2017
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