By Allan Fox: IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (57-3, 50 KO’s) already has a couple of opponents picked out to choose from after he dispatches 40-year-old opponent Tony Thompson (36-2, 24 KO’s) in his next fight on July 7th in Berne, Switzerland. Wladimir wants to fight either Chris Arreola (35-2, 30 KO’s) or unbeaten Seth Mitchell (24-0-1, 19 KO’s).

Wladimir said to CBS Sports “At the end of the year I will face either Chris Arreola, who has recovered well from his loss against Vitali. He knocked out a lot of guys. And I want to introduce you to Seth Mitchell, an undefeated American fighter.”

Arreola, 31, is probably the better fighter by far, but it’s not interesting to see him get the title shot because he’s done nothing since being stopped by Wladimir’s brother WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in September 2009, unless you count Arreola getting beaten by Tomasz Adamek in April 2010 as being an accomplishment. Arreola went soft after the Adamek defeat and has won his last seven fights, albeit pretty much entirely against weak C level opposition. He did face a top 15 contender in Eric Molina last February and stopped him in the 1st round, but Molina probably should never have been ranked in the top 15 to begin with.

Only the World Boxing Council had him ranked in the top 15, and when you have something like that, it tells you that the fighter is considered too flawed to be ranked high by the other sanctioning bodies. I don’t want to see Arreola get beat again, and the face that he’s been matched carefully against weak opposition since his loss to Adamek, suggests that he’s not ready for a fight against Wladimir. To improve, you have to face quality opposition and Arreola hasn’t done that.

Mitchell, 29, is still way to inexperienced to fight someone Wladimir. Although he’s 29, Mitchell doesn’t look very good and lacks speed and height at 6’2″ to beat Wladimir. Mitchell did beat Timur Ibragimov by a 2nd round TKO in his last fight in December last year, but that’s the only decent fighter he’s faced and even that win doesn’t say much because Ibragimov is totally flawed. But if the choice is only between Arreola and Mitchell, then I’ll take Mitchell any day of the week.

I’ve seen Arreola get beat too many times and he’s not done enough to deserve another title shot. I especially don’t like how the inexperienced fringe contender Molina was able to stagger Arreola in his last fight. That tells me that Arreola isn’t even close to being ready to face Wladimir.