By Cliff Rold

Vladimir Virchis versus Juan Carlos Gomez is an interesting fight on its own merits; the fact that, if and when it actually happens, the winner could further hold up the desire of many to see ultimate unification at heavyweight adds a cloud that neither fighter deserves.

As reported here at Boxing Scene by Per Ake Persson on February 3rd (Click Here), the specifics on this fight, like a date, remain up in the air. The confusion makes it a fitting addition to the cluster(expletive deleted) that has been the collection of Jose Sulaiman’s Heavyweight division sanction fees for well over year.

Virchis-Gomez is intended as an eliminator for a shot at the winner of a March bout that could fairly be titled “Samuel Peter Should Finally Knock Out Oleg Maskaev and Everyone Gets to Move On…Amen” for the WBC Heavyweight belt.  Between the scheduled title affair and intended eliminator, we have the equivalent of a loser’s bracket in the race to fill the record vacancy in the true Heavyweight championship of the world.

Heavyweight boxing’s N.I.T. if you will.

In the winner’s bracket, for now, are the two men whose curriculum vitae’s say they are the best Heavyweights in the world, IBF titlist Wladimir Klitschko (49-3, 44 KO) of the Ukraine and WBA titlist Ruslan Chagaev (24-0-1, 17 KO) of Uzbekistan.  Joining them by proxy of his undefeated record and February 23rd appointment with Klitschko is Russia’s WBO beltholder Sultan Ibragimov (22-0-1, 17 KO).

The line between the winner’s and loser’s brackets is thin.  Peter has only one loss, to Klitschko, and while he lost the majority of rounds he also scored three knockdowns.  He, and not Chagaev, is argued by many in the U.S. market, including Ring Magazine, as the second best heavyweight in the division based on his rematch victory over James Toney. 

However, if you stack Peter’s depth of quality wins against Chagaev’s, that argument becomes difficult.  Were Peter the overseas commodity and Chagaev the familiar U.S. TV face, there probably isn’t even an argument.  As noted in my suggested promotional tag, Peter is expected to defeat Maskaev handily and that it as it should be given Maskaev’s propensity to fall flat against any top-tier Heavyweight not named Rahman.

And by flat, I mean flat on his back.

Virchis (24-1, 20 KO), another Ukrainian, doesn’t have any particular depth in quality to his 24 wins, but the one loss is his destiny’s difference.  That loss came in March 2006 to Chagaev by the narrowest of majority decision margins.  A point or two decided differently and it might be Virchis with a WBA title today (one would hope anyways; the alternative would be that Nicolay Valuev would still be ‘chasing Marciano.’  Uugh.)  Virchis is a solid Heavyweight but, already 34, how long he can stay solid remains to be seen.

His age won’t be a factor whenever he and Gomez (43-1, 35 KO) settle on a date.  That’s because the Cuban is no spring chicken either, sharing the same 34 calendar ticks with Virchis.  Gomez is an intriguing veteran.  Arguably the second best Cruiserweight in the history of the division behind Evander Holyfield, Gomez is 9-1 with 1 no contest since moving up the scale.  To his detriment, the one was a positively awful 1st round stoppage loss to a below-average Yanqui Diaz.  Out of shape and out of sorts, Gomez was tagged while cold and his career has yet to recover.

This will be the chance for it to do so.

To the sports benefit, each of these two fights should be well worth watching and, as a credit to the sports allowance for resiliency, the emergent winner in the losers bracket will likely have seen enough time pass to find themselves right back in the winner’s bracket. 

That’s the funny thing about boxing.  Fighters worst losses can always be offset by a string of wins to replace them.  Instead of holding up unification, the WBC title situation could create just enough cushion to allow for the sport to unify the other titles around it and give the best of the loser’s a chance to be a champion.

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com