By William Mackay: World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Kitschko (37-2, 36 KO’s) won his arbitration case with the WBC yesterday, meaning that Vitali can now fight pretty much whoever he wants next. Instead of fighting WBC mandatory challenger Oleg Maskaev, which is what the WBC wanted Klitschko to fight next, he can now select a more lucrative bout against someone like David Haye or Chris Arreola next.

Maskaev, 40, remains the mandatory challenger for Vitali, but will have to wait for him to fight an optional defense before fighting him. The reason for Klitschko taking this to arbitration was that he had previously fought his number #1 mandatory challenger in his last fight, a 9th round stoppage over Juan Carlos Gomez in March 2009.

And by having to fight Maskaev next, it would have meant that Klitschko would have been forced to fight two mandatory challengers back to back. That’s not how things are normally done, however. Usually, fighters are allowed optional defenses in between the mandatory defenses of their titles.

It wouldn’t have mattered if Maskaev was a popular opponent, one that boxing fans in the United States wanted to see Vitali fight. However, there were a number of other opponents like Arreola and Haye that Vitali could probably make more money on instead of a bout with former WBC heavyweight champion Maskaev.

Klitschko is reportedly pleased with the news that he won the arbitration hearing. He can now move on and attempt to land a bigger fight than the Maskaev bout next. It seems odd, though, that Maskaev has been selected by the WBC to be Vitali’s mandatory challenger, because Maskaev has done little since losing his WBC title by a 6th round stoppage to Samuel Peter last year in March.

Since that fight, Maskaev defeated journeyman Robert Hawkins by a 10 round unanimous decision in September 2008, and then beat the unknown Rich Boruff by a 1st round knockout in March 2009. Neither opponent would seem to be worthy enough for Maskaev to be pushed up into the mandatory challenger status for Klitschko.

It would seem much more logical that Maskaev should have at least had to fight someone like Arreola, Alexander Dimitrenko, Eddie Chambers, or Alexander Povetkin for him to be selected as a mandatory for Vitali’s title you would think.

It’s hard to say who Vitali’s next opponent will be at this point. Haye, 28, would seem like the best option, but because of his recent injury to his back which caused him to pull out of his scheduled June 20th bout with Wladimir Klitschko, it would be a risky option for Vitali to take. At 37, soon to be 38 in July, Vitali can ill afford to have an opponent pull out of a fight due to an injury.

Vitali might be better off going for the safer choice of fighting undefeated American Arreola, who is popular in the U.S. and doesn’t have the same risk of injury that Haye now has. It would be better for Haye to have to work his way into a title shot and prove that he can actually beat a couple of good heavyweights in the top 10 before getting rewarded with a title shot.

At the same time, it would have ease the minds of the Klitschko brothers that Haye’s back will be able to hold up under the stress of another training camp or two.