Photo credit: Tom Loeffler – By Dave Lahr: WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (39-2, 37 KO’s) is promising to put in an impressive performance against his hand-picked opponent Albert Sosnowski (45-2-1, 27 KO’s) when he fights the Polish heavyweight on May 29th, at the Veltins Arena, in Gelsenkirchen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Klitschko, 38, has picked Sosnowski, a fighter ranked number #13 by the World Boxing Council, over more qualified opponents like unbeaten Cuban Odlanier Solis, Denis Boytsov and Alexander Povetkin. It looks as if Klitschko is looking to get an easy payday after looking pretty horrible in his last fight against American Kevin Johnson in December.

In that fight, Klitschko looked slow, really slow and took a lot of jabs to the face all night long. Klitschko was unable to land his right hands for most of the fight because of Johnson’s speed. Rather than face Solis, a fighter with even better hand speed and power than Johnson, the 38-year-old Klitschko opted for the safe route by taking on the 31-year-old Sosnowski. This has got to be one of the worst opponents that Klitschko could have picked among the top 15, and probably easiest fight for him to take.

No way with the U.S. cable networks being showing this terrible mismatch. However, the Germans don’t seem to care who Klitschko fights, and are expected to fill the Gelsenkirchen stadium to the full capacity of 61,000 to watch the mismatch. That’s good for Klitschko that he can sellout a mismatch like this, but I can’t understand how the German fans would want to see a fight like this.

This is a mismatch of the highest order. Sosnowski went life and death with fringe contender Francesco Pianeta last year, fighting him to a 12 round draw. I saw the fight and thought it was a couple of 2nd tier heavyweights fighting. And to now see that Klitschko has picked one of those guys to fight, it’s kind of shocking.

I don’t mind seeing mismatches every now and then, but I always thought Vitali was beyond that. But this seems to be a money fight for him. I can’t understand how he would want to pick someone like Sosnowski, though. If you’re going to pick an easy opponent at least pick someone that boxing fans have heard of like James Toney, Tomasz Adamek or Nikolay Valuev.

Vitali said in a press conference today “I am the strongest in the world and for whoever comes to watch the fight [Klitschko-Sosnowski] , I promise an unforgettable performance. I will only part with this belt when I want to. Muhammad Ali had this bet,. Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis had it and now I am the rightful owner. With Sosnowski, we met and talked. I saw it in his eye. He wants it. He has more fights than me, more experience in the heavyweight division, but I am happy with whoever comes to challenge me and I am delighted with the fight.”

I may be mistaken, but it sounds like Vitali is trying to build up Sosnowski in the minds of the boxing public, while at the same time trying to make an excuse for selecting him as an opponent. Sosnowski has more experience at Vitali? That’s pretty funny. Sosnowski has more fights than Vitali, but it’s pretty much all 2nd tier opposition with the exception of his fights against fringe contenders like Danny Williams and Pianeta.

Of course, Sosnowski wants to win the WBC title, but that doesn’t mean that he has the ability to or that should have been selected by Vitali to fight. Heck, Vitali could have selected a hungry 3rd tier heavyweight, looked him in the eye and he would have no doubt seen that the poor sap wanted to win Vitali’s belt. But that doesn’t mean that the guy deserved to be given a chance for the belt. It’s a bad a match-up. All I can say is the German fans must really love Vitali if they go and see this fight, if you want to call it that.