By Aaron Klein: It seems as if we’re in a time warp, going back all the way to 2004 when then WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko was struggling to get make into to the ring in one piece for his title defense against his mandatory challenger Hasim Rahman. At the time, there were more than a few boxing fans who felt that Vitali was less than eager to face Rahman due to Hasim’s big right hand, long reach and good boxing skills. After injuring himself on a number of occasions, causing the cancellations of his fights with Rahman, Vitali retired without ever fighting Rahman. It’s unknown whether or not Vitali could have beaten Rahman, who appeared to match up with Vitali at the time.

Now fast forward to 2008, in which Vitali is once again the WBC heavyweight champion. This time, his number #1 mandatory is the equally dangerous Juan Carlos Gomez, a former Cuban amateur star and WBC cruiserweight champion from 1998-2002. Vitali, no doubt, is very familiar with the kinds of skills that Gomez, nicknamed the “Black Panther,” possesses as both Vitali and Gomez previously fought at the same time for Universum.

Gomez had a reputation for being extremely tough and beating up many of the other fighters while sparring in the German-based gym. It’s unknown whether or not Vitali ever sparred with Gomez or not, but whether he did or not, he had to have been aware of how good Gomez was at the time. Wladimir Klitschko certainly is aware of Gomez, having lost to him while an amateur.

Gomez, 35, recently defeated Vladimir Virchis to earn the right to fight the winner of Samuel Peter vs. Vitali fight. Now that Vitali has emerged the winner of the bout, he has 90 days to defend his title against Gomez or risk getting stripped. However, Vitali hasn’t been mentioning Gomez’s name as a potential opponent since winning the WBC title last Saturday night. Instead, Vitali has been talking about Lennox Lewis and Nikolay Valuev, ignoring the subject of Gomez altogether.

It’s not surprising to me that Vitali isn’t mentioning Gomez, because his style of fighting is very similar to Chris Byrd, a fighter that gave Vitali all kinds of problems, eventually defeating him by a 9th round stoppage when Vitali quit on his stool in their April 2000 bout. Gomez does all the same things that Byrd does – blocks a lot of punches with his gloves, moves his torso to avoid shots, moves well on the outside and throws fast combinations. He doesn’t load up like big punchers like Peter, and instead focuses on fast punches and defense.

He would be a nightmare for Vitali to fight at this stage of his career, and I have grave doubts that Vitali would emerge victorious in such a bout if it were to take place. Vitali probably knows he would be in for one of the toughest fights of his career hands down. Gomez would be like a better version of Byrd, one with power, speed and combinations. In his last fight, Gomez made a Vitali-like Virchis look as if he were fighting in quicksand. The fight was totally one-sided, with Gomez boxing circles around the slower, robotic punching Virchis.