Less than 24 hours before the WBC heavyweight championship between titlist Vitali Klitschko and no. 1 contender Juan Carlos Gomez the show may be called off because the ring is too small. At a measurement Friday night the ring was almost 4 feet shorter than the minimum allowed by the WBC rules for championship bouts.

ARENA-CEO Ahmet Öner: “This is ridiculous! I really don’t understand how a promoter can be so arrogant and ignorant not to follow the rules and build a ring that is almost 4 feet too small. We are not talking about a few inches here! In fight week we have been confronted with all kinds of provocation and unprofessional behaviour by the Klitschko management – for instance they still refuse credentials for my closest office staff and parts of Gomez’ team – but that caps it all! Team Klitschko is either very stupid or very nervous. I have no other explanations for their mistakes. They have been talking a lot about using the smallest possible ring but obviously never even checked the rules. It is nothing but embarrassing – after all we are not talking about a small fight just for fun. This is a world title fight. The world is watching and the Klitschkos have nothing to do but to humiliate themselves.”

After the ARENA team informed the Klitschko management and K2 promotions about the problem the ropes were rearranged. Still the problem is not solved. Öner: “Now the space between the ropes and the canvas is only 12 inches instead of 36 inches (as stipulated in the WBC rules)! This is extremely risky and dangerous. If a fighter stands against the ropes he might easily slip and fall. In the worst case one of the guys could break his legs. And we do not want this to happen to either Vitali or Juan. So we will not allow our fighter to step into this ring!”

How can things be solved? Öner: “Well, team Klitschko still got enough time to sort things out and set up a new ring. I hope they are working on this already. We will measure again tomorrow morning and hope that the fight can still go on. Juan is ready to go – and he doesn’t care about the ring size. He said he would even outbox Vitali in a phone booth. But the rules are the rules. We will not disrespect the WBC and we will not allow the Klitschko management to do so.”