By Rick Reeno and Vadim Aziskie
The April 30th meeting between WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko and Hasim Rahman has been officially postponed. Vitali Klitschko sprained upper thigh muscle Friday night while jogging in Ukraine. After a Saturday meeting with his doctor, he was advised to stop training and rest for a few weeks. Klitschko's will have his thigh checked out in 2 weeks in order to determine if he recovered enough to resume training.
BoxingScene's Russian correspondent Vadim Aziskie was able to speak with the Klitschko camp and Vitali himself to get the inside scoop on the champion's future plans.
"I'm still going to fight Hasim Rahman, he is the number one contender to my WBC title. I was ready for our fight in April, but an injury happened so I cannot properly train for the fight and we had no choice but to cancel the April date." said Klitschko
"I hope to be training again soon for this fight, I will prepare myself and move forward with the fighting Rahman."
BoxingScene asked Klitschko on what he planned to do in order to cement his legacy in the current state of the heavyweight division.
"I want to fight all the champions and unify the heavyweight division. Right now I have a tough fight, Hasim Rahman is a great fighter, a former champion and I am very focused on fighting him. Lennox Lewis was not focused on Rahman in their first fight and he got knocked out, I will not make a similiar mistake and lose my title."
We posed a question to Klitschko as to which heavyweights he admired most and how he compares himself to the heavyweights from the past.
"I most admire Max Schmeling, he was a very great man. Schmeling had tremendous heart and boxing skill. I watched many of Schmeling's fights, he offered much guidance for me in my career. I also learned a lot from watching tapes of Muhammad Ali, he was another great heavyweight fighter. Mike Tyson, I grew up watching him, he was one of the reasons I wanted to start boxing. Evander Holyfield was another great fighter who always had a lot of heart against much bigger opponent. I can't compare myself to the great fighters before me, the people watching me will have to compare."
A source within the Klitschko camp said that the fight "would be rescheduled to sometime in the Summer at the earliest".