By Jason Kim: IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (55-3, 49 KO’s) has a back-up plan in case his scheduled December 11th opponent unbeaten Dereck Chisora (14-0, 9 KO’s) is unable to make the fight due to him being in jail for an assault charge.

According to the Dailystar.co.uk, Klitschko has already started to negotiate with other fighters in case Chisora ends up in jail and misses the December fight in Mannheim, Germany.

Chisora, 26, will be sentenced on November 10th for an assault. At that time, Chisora will learn whether he’ll have to do any time or not. There’s a possibility that Chisora can do as much as six months in jail for the assault charge. If so, this would possibly interfere with his December 11th fight with Wladimir.

This is a once in a lifetime shot for Chisora, because he still hasn’t even proven that he’s the best fighter on the local scene in the UK. If it weren’t for Wladimir showing interest in fighting Chisora, he would likely have had to beat the top fighters in the UK, and then at the European level and finally one or two top fighters on the world level. Only then would Chisora get a shot against one of the champions.

However, Wladimir has saved Chisora a lot of trouble by picking him out at this early point in his career and saving him from having to prove that he’s worth fighting. Chisora’s best wins have come against Danny Williams and Sam Sexton, and neither of them are even close to being in the same class as Wladimir.

If Chisora misses this opportunity due to his assault charge, it will be a huge missed opportunity for him, because even if he gets blown out by Wladimir, he’d still earn a lot of attention from fans in this fight.