By Matt Stein: It seems as if World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (36-2, 35 KOs) is going to either have to fight Juan Carlos Gomez (44-1, 35 KOs), his number #1 mandatory challenger, or vacate the title in order to fight David Haye. Gomez, 35, is determined to fight Vitali next, based on news reports around the boxing world. Gomez, apparently, isn’t interested in stepping aside, and waiting for Haye to face Vitali first, and wants his bout to be next. Gomez had this to say to Haye pertaining to Vitali: “David, I got one advice for you – Keep your hands off Vitali. He’s mine.” Reluctant
This would suggest that Vitali is going to have to consider vacating the title if he’s really intent on fighting Haye next. It might not make much difference anyway, because the fan interest will be there with or without a title on the line. The only problem would be that Vitali, 37, wants to hold onto his heavyweight so that he could keep the title in the family.
Currently, Vitali’s brother, Wladimir Klitschko, holds both the IBF and WBO heavyweight titles, leaving only the WBA belt (held by Ruslan Chagaev and Nikolay Valuev) as the only strap that has eluded the Klitschko brothers. Gomez is about to make things messy by his reluctance to step aside and let Vitali go ahead with a fight with Haye first. If Vitali does end up having to face Gomez, Vitali only has until April 2009 to make the fight, otherwise he’ll likely be stripped of his title by the WBA.
It’s quite understandable why Vitali isn’t particularly enthralled with the prospect of fighting Gomez, because it’s a fight that would excite few fans, gain little interest worldwide, and make much less money than a fight with the 28-year-old Haye. Even though Gomez might be a better fighter than Haye with more of a proven record, it still isn’t a fight that would attract many fans.
While at the same time, it would be a dangerous fight for Vitali, because Gomez, who stands 6’3”, has a style of fighting that would be difficult for Vitali to beat. Gomez, a southpaw, is a classic counter puncher, with fast hands and excellent ring movement. He’s only been beaten once in his career by Yanqui Diaz four years ago in 2004, a fight where Diaz came out fast and hurt Gomez in the opening moments of the fight and finished him off with a flurry.
The fight appeared to have been stopped prematurely, however, and it probably should have been allowed to have continued a little longer to make the outcome more clear cut. In his last fight, Gomez easily beat Vladimir Virchis by a 12-round lopsided decision in the WBC title eliminator match in September. In that fight, Gomez showed why he’s such a difficult opponent to fight, throwing hard flurries, moving a lot, making Virchis miss often and pounding him with jabs.
Gomez never presents himself as a stationary target, and would make the 37-year-old Vitali work hard for a victory. Perhaps even worse for Vitali, however, is that it would wipe out a lot of time having to train for the Gomez bout, time that Vitali would probably prefer to choose on fighting someone a little more popular like Haye.
As frail as Vitali has been in recent years, there’s also the risk of him suffering another debilitating injury while training for the Gomez fight, which would potentially put Vitali out of action for another extended amount of time should he injure himself again. If he’s to risk a training camp, he would probably prefer it to be for a fighter that is worth the risk, like Haye rather than Gomez.
Comments are closed.