By Dan Ambrose: The World Boxing Association is giving IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (58-3, 50 KO’s) until February 27th to defend his title against WBA World regular heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (25-0, 17 KO’s), according to fightnews.com. However, a fight between Wladimir and Povetkin likely won’t happen until next summer in July because Wladimir could possibly ask for a delay in taking the fight so that Wladimir can fight other guys.

It’s unclear why Wladimir would opt to push a Povetkin fight into the future because it’s not as if Wladimir has been fighting anyone interesting lately. Since beating David Haye last year in July, Wladimir has had two dull fights against Jean Marc Mormeck and Tony Thompson. Now, Wladimir is fighting yet another over-matched and less than popular opponent in Mariusz Wach next month on November 10th, and few boxing fans want to see this fight other than Wladimir’s diehard fans and Wach’s loyal Polish fans. Wladimir’s options for appealing fights are limited.

Wladimir will likely fight Tomasz Adamek next year, and while the fight will make money due to Adamek’s large Polish fan base, it’s not going to be competitive fight or one that will interest anyone other than their devoted fans. Adamek has already been slaughtered by Vitali Klitschko, so it’s not particularly novel to see Wladimir destroy Adamek as well. Povetkin at least is still undefeated and that brings a little more interest to people in boxing.

If Wladimir fought someone like Kubrat Pulev it might be interesting because he’s got the size and boxing talent to give Wladimir some problems. It would be more interesting than seeing Wladimir destroy Adamek or one of the other contenders. Wladimir needs to step it up and start facing better opposition because Wach, Thompson and Mormeck really leave a lot to be desired. We’ll probably see David Haye being recycles really soon to fight Wladimir if Vitali doesn’t fight him.