By Dan Ambrose: 39-year-old Fres Oquendo (35-7, 23 KO’s) is not under consideration for IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko’s next fight on April 6th, according to Dan Rafael. There’s been a lot of talk around the boxing world for the past day about Wladimir choosing Oquendo to fight for his optional title defense. Rafael says he spoke to the Klitschko camp and they shot down the idea of a Wladimir-Oquendo fight.
This would have been Oquendo’s third title challenge, as he fought IBF heavyweight champion Chris Byrd in September 2003, and lost a controversial 12 round unanimous decision. The next year, Oquendo fought WBA heavyweight champion John Ruiz in April 2004, and was halted in the 11th round.
Oquendo is ranked #5 WBA, #12 WBC, which puts him above some of Wladimir’s recent challengers Jean Marc Mormeck, Mariusz Wach and Tony Thompson in ranking. I think Oquendo is probably better than all of them, even at 39. Oquendo will be turning 40 in April, but he hasn’t faced any big names for quite some time.
If Wladimir doesn’t choose Oquendo then it’s unknown who he’ll end up facing on April 6th. Team Klitschko were reportedly in talks with Cuban Odlanier Solis, but the negotiations reportedly fell apart for some reason. The fact that Solis’ name was being mentioned as a possible opponent for Wladimir suggests that he’s not really looking to face anyone that might have a chance at beating him.
There are plenty of flawed opponents that Wladimir can pick from to get an easy title defense in, but if he’s looking for someone that will help him sell tickets in Germany, it’s going to be a little tougher. He’ll have to face either a well-known German based heavyweight like Manuel Charr or someone like Tyson Fury, Kubrat Pulev or Tomasz Adamek. The Germans would likely be interested in a fight between Wladimir and one of those fighters.
Charr was just stopped by WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko last year, so he might not be a good choice for that reason. He wasn’t competitive.
Unbeaten American heavyweight Bryant Jennings called Wladimir out earlier today, saying that he’ll gladly take the fight, but he’s a dangerous heavyweight because he’s capable of throwing a lot of punches, and he’s got respectable power.
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