Dan Rafael reporting Vitali's next WBC title defense will likely be in April.
Who will be the opponent?
It cannot be Eddie Chambers, Chris Arreola, David Haye, John Ruiz, Evander Holyfield, Frans Botha, Kevin Johnson, Oleg Maskaev, Juan Carlos Gomez.
I'm thinking it will be Alexander Povetkin and if he wins he will fight the winner of Wladimir/Chambers in the summer.
if Vitali can't fight a "legit" guy like Povetkin, Solis, Boytsov etc and is going to fighter a lesser guy i'd love to see him fight Ustinov or Virchis.
I think the Klychko's promotional company promote Ustinov though so it probably wouldn't happen. But Virchis or Ustinov would at the very least be exciting slugfests with a 6'5 or 6'8 opponent. Both are game as ****.
It's getting toward the end of his career too so why not have it in Ukraine or Russia aswell.
It has to be either Solis, Austin or Povetkin. I thought Austin and Solis would end up fighting for the right?
Personally I think Povetkin would be better off taking his shot against Vitali than he would be waiting for Wlad but who knows.
- Haye is occupied with Ruiz in spring 2010.
- Povetkin is in line with Wlad mandatory, and will not fight Vitali before he's about to meet Wladimir. He postponed his mandatory fight with Wlad for 18 months already, and will challenge a Klitschko 'when he is ready'.
- Chambers is Wlad's next mandatory, and not available 'till summer 2010.
- Adamek fights vs. Estrada in 02/2010 and will be available in summer 2010.
Who is left of the TOP20 (boxrec)?
- Austin (seems to be the next mandatory in line)
- Valuev (the giant talked about a fight this summer; it would be a BIG one in Europe and many would hope VK would TKO the giant or even KO him)
- Solis (could be a repeat of the Arreola fight here)
- Boytsov (too green)
- David Tua (needs 1-2 more build-ups to prove himself)
- Dimitrenko (victory would be meaningless after the Chambers fight)
- Chagaev (victory would be meaningless after the Wlad fight)
In addition, there are many washed-up names like Maskaev, Ruiz, Toney, Rahman, Holyfield. There is nothing to gain for Vitali in these fights, besides money. None of them would add to hiss legacy NOW. If he had fought them like some years earlier, the fights would have been meaningful.
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Bottom line: I hope he fights Valuev and Haye in that order, and squeezed Austin in or pays sidestep money.
He'll fight Solis, Povetkin, and Boytsov for 2010...:boxing: but Vitaly might end up fighting Ray Austin next since hes the mandatory. but there are other bums he can fight like Rossy, Oquendo, Toney, Valuev....
I like seeiing Vitali fght often and take guys out. Unlike Wlad who I agree can be dull, Vitali is mostly interesting to watch. At least Povetkin would take the fght to him.