By Eric Baldwin: 40-year-old former heavyweight world champ Wladimir Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) has reportedly suffered an injury, and he WON’T be able to fight on December 10 against the likes of IBF belt holder Anthony Joshua or whoever.
There’s no word what kind of injury it is that Wladimir suffered, but it’s obviously bad enough for him not to be able to fight on the December 10 date. This news is not going to make Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn happy, because they were hoping to face Wladimir on December 10 for the vacant World Boxing Association heavyweight title at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
According to Dan Rafael, one source says Wladimir’s injury is calf-related. If this news turns out to be true, then it would be the second time that Wladimir has been sidetracked with a calf injury. He had that same problem a couple of years ago when he was training for a title defense against Kubrat Pulev. The injury caused the fight to be postponed month. Wladimir eventually faced Pulev and knocked him out in five rounds in a mismatch.
This doesn’t mean that Wladimir and Joshua won’t fight in the future, as they reportedly are still in negotiations for a fight that could take place next year in 2017.
The timing of the injury is a bad one for Joshua and Klitschko, because the two fighters were supposed to have heard back from the WBA today about whether they would sanction their December 10 fight or not. The chances were high that the WBA would have declined sanctioning the fight, because Joshua isn’t ranked in the WBA’s top 15.
Wladimir is ranked, and a fight between him and a top contender in the WBA’s rankings would have seemed the logical choice.
With the injury to Klitschko, it’s going to be interesting to see what the WBA does in making a decision about who fights for their vacant WBA heavyweight title. Does the WBA wait for Wladimir to heal up before ordering him to fight one of the WBA’s top contenders or do they order two other contenders to fight for their vacant WBA belt. If the WBA orders someone else to fight for the belt, they might end up with a less than popular champion. I’m not sure if that matters to the WBA or not, but that’s what could happen.
It’s got to be frustrating for Joshua and Hearn to have the WBA delaying their decision about who will fight for the WBA title, but it’s now academic that it won’t be Wladimir. Hearn will likely make a push to have Joshua fight the next highest ranked contender for the vacant WBA belt; although Hearn might not be so eager to make the fight if the WBA decides that they want Luis Ortiz (25-0, 22 KOs) to be the one to fight Joshua. That might be a nightmare or Joshua and Hearn, because Ortiz is a southpaw with lots of power and tons of experience on the amateur level. Ortiz never won a gold medal in the Olympics like Joshua did, but winning medals doesn’t mean as much as some boxing fans think it does. Gold medals in the Olympics do not always translate to greatness at the pro level. If there were the case, then fighters like Alexander Povetkin would still be a world champion now.
Wladimir is now in a better position to push for a fight against Joshua to take place outside of the UK in 2017. If he had agreed to fight Joshua on December 10, then it would have had to take place at the Manchester Arena in the UK. That would not be a good situation for Wladimir. The fans would be on Joshua’s side, and the referee might opt to enforce the rules for clinching excessively. Wladimir tends to tie up his opponents a great deal. If he couldn’t clinch Joshua, then the fight would likely be a war. That’s how Wladimir used to fight before he started to clinch a great deal.
The WBA title was recently vacated by Tyson Fury, who is going through some problems in his life. Fury gave up his WBA and WBO titles. The WBO belt will be fought over by Andy Ruiz Jr. and Joseph Parker on December 10th in New Zealand.
Ortiz and his new promoters at Matchroom Sport would probably love the chance to fight for the vacant WBA heavyweight title in place of Wladimir. However, Ortiz has a fight scheduled next month against Malik Scott on November 12th in Monte Carlo, and there’s no way that the WBA will make that fight for the vacant WBA title. Unless Ortiz can come back in December to fight for the vacant WBA belt, it would seem that he won’t get the shot at the vacant belt.
The WBA’s top 10 rankings are as follows:
1. Luis Ortiz
2. Wladimir Klitschko
3. Alexander Ustinov
4. Fres Oquendo
5. Lucas Browne
6. David Haye
7. Manuel Charr
8. Shannon Briggs
9. Joseph Parker
10. Jarrell Miller