By Jason Kim: In a bit of bad news for World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (36-2, 35 KOs) will be forced to defend his title in his next defense to his number #1 mandatory challenger Juan Carlos Gomez (44-1, 35 KOs) rather than defending his title against a lower ranked fighter than him. Vitali, 37, recently came back from a four-year retirement to stop WBC heavyweight champion Samuel Peter in the 9th round in October.
Vitali, a three-time heavyweight champion and the brother of IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, looked very impressive in defeating Peter, appearing to have lost nothing in his four-year retirement. Since winning the title, Vitali has hinted at wanting to face Nikolay Valuev, the WBA heavyweight champion, in a unification bout. Valuev has a fight with Evander Holyfield in December, but following that fight, Valuev has an open schedule.
With Vitali now forced to fight Gomez next, that changes things dramatically for the worse for Vitali, because not only will he have a fight that will earn him much less money than a fight with Valuev would, Gomez is probably the more dangerous opponent for Vitali due to his speed, long reach, southpaw stance and excellent counter punching ability.
Gomez, a former standout amateur from Cuba, has an elusive style that would possibly give Vitali a lot of problems. Gomez, a young 35, is a former WBC cruiserweight champion who has boxing skills perhaps even better than Vitali. Gomez has previously defeated Wladimir Klitschko while fighting in the amateur ranks, and does especially well against taller heavyweights like Vitali.
For this reason, it might be advisable for Vitali to give up the WBC belt, and look to face Valuev without a title on the line. At least in the way, Vitali will be spared of having to face a risky defense against Gomez, who with his style of fighting, may have what it takes to beat Vitali. Eight years earlier in his career, Vitali was stopped in the 9th round after injuring his shoulder against Chris Byrd in 2000.
Byrd’s style of fighting is very similar to Gomez, only without nearly as much power. Vitali, despite a considerable size advantage over Byrd, starting wearing down under Byrd’s pressure starting in the 7th round, and by the end in the 9th, Vitali looked exhausted from the pressure that Byrd was putting on him. Gomez, for his part, would be probably putting the same kind of pressure on Vitali as Gomez, and in the end it might be too much for the 37 year-old Ukrainian to handle.
Gomez is coming off a 12-round unanimous decision over Vladimir Virchis in September in the WBC title eliminator bout. Gomez’s speed was far too much for the slower, harder hitting Virchis to deal with. Gomez dominated the fight from start to finish, and never let Virchis into the bout. Like Vitali, Virchis depends on power shots to win, and he was at a loss when he was unable to land his slower shots against the elusive Gomez.
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