By William Mackay: Although IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko has signed to fight WBA heavyweight champion David Haye in a fight that will take place in June or July, it’s his brother WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (41-2, 38 KO’s) who may end up being the one to fight Haye because of Wladimir’s abdominal tear. Vitali, however, has to get past the fast and powerful unbeaten Odlanier Solis (17-0, 12 KO’s) in one piece at the Lanxess-Arena, Cologne, Germany.
Vitali, 39, should win this fight but it’s not going to be easy and the chances are fairly high that Vitali may suffer a cut or two along the way. With Wladimir fighting Haye in June or July, that won’t give Vitali much time for his injuries to heal by the time the Haye-Klitschko fight takes place. This means that if Wladimir pulls out of the fight with Haye, Vitali could be stepping in with only a partially healed cut, which would be in danger of being re-opened almost immediately by Haye’s powerful shots.
In the best possible world, Wladimir’s abdominal injury will be fully healed by the time the Haye fight takes place in the summer. However, those kinds of injuries tend to linger for many months and sometimes as long as a year when not given a lot of rest. With Wladimir trying to get back in the training camp to get ready for the Haye fight, he’ll be putting his injured abdominal muscles under a lot of strain and we could see him re-injuring it before long.
Wladimir isn’t about to fight Haye unless he’s 100%. You know that. As such, Wladimir will pull out of the fight and Vitali will be the one that’s called on to mop up Haye and send him into retirement a loser. Hopefully, Vitali gets through the Solis fight without getting too banged up.
Comments are closed.