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NEW YORK (TICKER) —Wladimir Klitschko vowed to continue his bid to unify all the heavyweight titles as soon as possible following his annexing of the WBO belt at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.
With the IBF and IBO titles already in his possession, Klitschko made it a hat trick with a convincing points decision over Russia’s Sultan Ibragimov in the first heavyweight unification fight since 1999.
That leaves WBA champion Ruslan Chagaev and the winner of next month’s WBC title fight between Samuel Peter and Oleg Maskaev as the only divisions blocking Klitschko’s path to reaching his goal of heavyweight domination.
With older brother Vitali Klitschko on the comeback trail and having been promised a match with the winner of Maskaev-Peter, Chagaev is the next realistic target.
“I’m ready to fight again as soon as possible,” Klitschko said during his post-fight press conference. “I fought 12 rounds, but I didn’t get hurt and I wish I could get another champion.
“Next month we have Samuel Peter and Oleg Maskaev fighting, so we’ll see what’s happening there. But my brother Vitali will be stepping in, so we’ll let him handle it. The WBA situation is Chagaev fighting somebody, so we’ll see if we get a chance to unify all the titles.”
Klitschko praised Ibragimov for putting his title on the line when he was under no obligation to do so.
“I want to say thank you to Sultan Ibragimov for taking this fight because boxing fans are tired of all the sports politicians and all the talk about unification that never came,” the Ukrainian said. “We made this happen, and it’s great for the sport first of all.
“The heavyweight division needs an undisputed champion, we need a person to carry this title.”
With the IBF and IBO titles already in his possession, Klitschko made it a hat trick with a convincing points decision over Russia’s Sultan Ibragimov in the first heavyweight unification fight since 1999.
That leaves WBA champion Ruslan Chagaev and the winner of next month’s WBC title fight between Samuel Peter and Oleg Maskaev as the only divisions blocking Klitschko’s path to reaching his goal of heavyweight domination.
With older brother Vitali Klitschko on the comeback trail and having been promised a match with the winner of Maskaev-Peter, Chagaev is the next realistic target.
“I’m ready to fight again as soon as possible,” Klitschko said during his post-fight press conference. “I fought 12 rounds, but I didn’t get hurt and I wish I could get another champion.
“Next month we have Samuel Peter and Oleg Maskaev fighting, so we’ll see what’s happening there. But my brother Vitali will be stepping in, so we’ll let him handle it. The WBA situation is Chagaev fighting somebody, so we’ll see if we get a chance to unify all the titles.”
Klitschko praised Ibragimov for putting his title on the line when he was under no obligation to do so.
“I want to say thank you to Sultan Ibragimov for taking this fight because boxing fans are tired of all the sports politicians and all the talk about unification that never came,” the Ukrainian said. “We made this happen, and it’s great for the sport first of all.
“The heavyweight division needs an undisputed champion, we need a person to carry this title.”
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