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Klitschko, Chagaev reach agreement
Posted Jun. 5, 2009 at 12:07pm
By Michael Rosenthal
Buzz up!
Wladimir Klitschko will face Ruslan Chagaev for the vacant RING magazine heavyweight championship on June 20, the same day he was supposed to fight David Haye, Klitschko’s manager told THE RING. The venue also remains the same, a 60,000-seat soccer stadium in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
No further details about the deal were immediately available.
Haye pulled out of the fight on Wednesday with a back injury. Chagaev was scheduled to fight Nikolai Valuev last Saturday in Finland but was shown to have a hepatitis B antigen in his system and was not allowed to fight.
Nigel Collins, editor-in-chief of THE RING magazine, also confirmed that Klitschko, rated No. 1, and No. 3 Chagaev will fight for the championship.
“THE RING magazine will recognize the upcoming bout between Wladimir Klitschko and Ruslan Chagaev as being for the vacant RING heavyweight championship of the world,” Collins said. “Usually, we require a match between the No. 1 and No. 2 contenders to fill a vacancy. But in certain circumstances, we will recognize a match between No. 1 and No. 3, and this is one of those circumstances.
“Wladimir is THE RING’s No. 1 heavyweight contender, and his participation is mandatory, but as the No. 2 contender is his brother, Vitali, and the brothers have stated many times that they will never fight, a match between Wladimir and No. 3 contender Chagaev meets THE RING’s criterion.”
Haye had asked Klitschko to postpone the fight – rather than replace him – but Klitschko believed that was too risky.
“If David Haye could guarantee that he would be fit for July 11, then we would probably have gone ahead and re-scheduled, but there is no guarantee and this is the worry – that it could happen again,” Bernd Bonte, Klitschko’s manager, told Telegraph Sport.
“If the injury did recur, and there is no guarantee that it would not, it would leave Wladimir in a difficult situation, because if he then had to cancel again, it would mean … he would not have made a defense of his title for nine months.”
Bonte added that Klitschko could fight Haye next year.
Posted Jun. 5, 2009 at 12:07pm
By Michael Rosenthal
Buzz up!
Wladimir Klitschko will face Ruslan Chagaev for the vacant RING magazine heavyweight championship on June 20, the same day he was supposed to fight David Haye, Klitschko’s manager told THE RING. The venue also remains the same, a 60,000-seat soccer stadium in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
No further details about the deal were immediately available.
Haye pulled out of the fight on Wednesday with a back injury. Chagaev was scheduled to fight Nikolai Valuev last Saturday in Finland but was shown to have a hepatitis B antigen in his system and was not allowed to fight.
Nigel Collins, editor-in-chief of THE RING magazine, also confirmed that Klitschko, rated No. 1, and No. 3 Chagaev will fight for the championship.
“THE RING magazine will recognize the upcoming bout between Wladimir Klitschko and Ruslan Chagaev as being for the vacant RING heavyweight championship of the world,” Collins said. “Usually, we require a match between the No. 1 and No. 2 contenders to fill a vacancy. But in certain circumstances, we will recognize a match between No. 1 and No. 3, and this is one of those circumstances.
“Wladimir is THE RING’s No. 1 heavyweight contender, and his participation is mandatory, but as the No. 2 contender is his brother, Vitali, and the brothers have stated many times that they will never fight, a match between Wladimir and No. 3 contender Chagaev meets THE RING’s criterion.”
Haye had asked Klitschko to postpone the fight – rather than replace him – but Klitschko believed that was too risky.
“If David Haye could guarantee that he would be fit for July 11, then we would probably have gone ahead and re-scheduled, but there is no guarantee and this is the worry – that it could happen again,” Bernd Bonte, Klitschko’s manager, told Telegraph Sport.
“If the injury did recur, and there is no guarantee that it would not, it would leave Wladimir in a difficult situation, because if he then had to cancel again, it would mean … he would not have made a defense of his title for nine months.”
Bonte added that Klitschko could fight Haye next year.
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