By Dan Ambrose: 39-year-old WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (41-2, 38 KO’s) will soon be 40-years-old in July, and is talking about fighting only a couple more times before retiring from the sport. Vitali wants to get a big fight against Tomasz Adamek and/or David Haye before retiring. The chances of getting even one of those fights is probably slim at best. Haye wants no part of Vitali, and only mentions the Klitschko brothers from time to time in a name dropping manner.

In an interview with the Bild, Vitali said “I feel like I’m 25-years-old, but on paper I’m a boxing grandpa. I’m well aware of that. Lot’s of sportsmen have missed the right moment to end their career. That’s not going to happen with me. Every fight carries with it a big risk. You have to be realistic. But there will be a couple of fights yet.”

Vitali won’t get the Haye fight and Adamek is likely to face Wladimir in September, unless Vitali can shove Wladimir out of the way and take the fight. He might need to do that because Wladimir could still end up facing Haye at some point before he retires. Haye actually wants to fight Wladimir, but Vitali is clearly not someone he wants to tangle with.

Barring injuries, Vitali could probably continue to fight at the top for at least two or three more years because of how bad the heavyweight division is. once Haye is gone, there’s really no one to compete against in the division. Adamek is too small at 6’1″, and he fights like a timid rabbit much of the time. He’s going to get run over by the Klitschkos.

Vitali faces unbeaten Odlanier Solis (17-0, 12 KO’s) on March 19th at the Lanxess-Arena, Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

This will be the 6th title defense and it could be one of Vitali’s tougher title defenses, as Solis has better skills and speed than anyone that Vitali has faced yet. This could be a tough fight for Vitali at this late stage in his career. The one thing Vitali has going for him in this fight is that Solis is quite a bit shorter than Vitali at only 6’1″, and Solis makes his lack of size worse for himself by being so fat at 260. He needs to get his weight down if he wants to give Vitali trouble.