By Jason Kim: According to the German Bild news paper, IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko has tired of his negotiation attempts with British heavyweight David Haye, and that he will now looking into finding a new opponent for his next fight in June. Wladimir’s manager Bernd Boente that they’ve near to coming to an agreement with a deal for the fight only to see Haye’s management come up with more requests. With the fight with Haye looking like a no go for Wladimir, he is now reportedly looking at fighting Chris Arreola or the 7-foot Nikolay Valuev in June.
A fight with Valuev would be huge fight, even better than a fight with Haye. However, this fight likewise would be a negotiating nightmare between the two sides due to the promoters the Klitschkos would have to deal with in setting up the fight. Another problem with Arreola and Valuev, unfortunately, is that both of them are tied up with upcoming fights in the near future.
Arreola fights Jameel McCline next month, and Valuev is looking to fight Ruslan Chagaev in September. It’s certainly possible that if Arreola stops McCline in one or two rounds without getting hit or cut, Arreola could be available for a June fight without any problems.
McCline has a way of hanging around, though, and he could mess things up by making Arreola work harder than he’d like and take some punishment from him in winning a decision. Other than those two, Wladimir could go after Alexander Dimitrenko, a tall 6’7” Ukrainian fighter with a lot of skills but not much experience against top level opposition.
It’s doubtful, however, that the HBO cable network would be agreeable to a fight of that nature, not that Dimitrenko wouldn’t have a chance, but because not too many fans would be aware of who Dimitrenko is and would probably not tune in to see an unknown fighter. Other than those few, there’s not a lot of options out there for Wladimir, especially ones that HBO would be interested in showing to the larger public.
At the end of the day, Wladimir could find himself without a credible opponent period. Right now, he is in bad need of someone good to fight, because he’s beaten a string of less than exciting opponents since winning the IBF title in 2006.
Starting backwards, Wladimir has beaten Hasim Rahman, Tony Thompson, Sultan Ibragimov, Lamon Brewser, Ray Austin and Calvin Brock since winning the IBF title against Chris Byrd in April 2006. Not one of those fights have been even slightly interesting to watch, and though Wladimir has held onto his title for all these years, he’s become almost unwatchable because of his poor opposition and his safety first style of fighting.
As for Haye, he really doesn’t need this fight to remain popular. He’s younger, and arguably a lot more exciting fighter to watch for most boxing fans. All he needs to do is keep winning and keep knocking out his opponents, and he’ll make out real well financially.
The fans hardly care about whom he fights, and will forgive him if he keeps fighting 2nd tier heavyweights like he’s done in his two prior bouts at heavyweight.
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