Dr Ironfist: Klitschko with WBC heavyweight belt Pic: ©K2 Promotions
Vitali Klitschko has admitted he was forced to settle for his third choice opponent after both David Haye and Nikolai Valuev refused to fight him. Klitschko, the WBC heavyweight champion, will defend his title against former WBO champion Shannon Briggs on October 16 in Hamburg, Germany.
Fight fans the world over have been calling on either Vitali or younger brother Wladimir Klitschko to take on WBA champion Haye, but while the Englishman contemplates an all-British showdown with the lackluster Audley Harrison, the older of the Klitschkos has chosen to visit an aging former heavyweight champion in Briggs.
“I know that many fans want to see the fight between Vitali Klitschko and Nikolai Valuev,” said the Ukrainian. “I have done the utmost to make this fight take place. I have offered big money, but Valuev called it ‘insignificant.’ I’ve offered the fight for the WBC title, but for him it probably means nothing. Believe me I am not guilty that he doesn’t want to fight me.
“I offered the fight to David Haye, but he is silent, he is afraid to fight me. We thought, who is the strongest opponent who can resist me? [Samuel] Peter will fight Wladimir, and we have chosen Shannon Briggs.
“[Briggs] is one of the most serious contenders for the world championship. His record of fights demands respect. I know that for me it’s a serious fight. I’m very proud to own today the belt which Mike Tyson, Lewis and Ali owned, and I will make sure this belt remains with me. I will give everything in this fight to come out again the winner.”
The three big names in the heavyweight division are Klitschko, Klitschko and Haye. Between them they hold all the world title belts, yet a fight has failed to materialise despite it looking certain on several occasions before crumbling at the last minute.
Instead of the brash Londoner Haye facing either of the Klitschkos in an attempt to unify the division, we have Vitali taking on the 38-year-old Briggs who lost the WBO title in his first defence to Sultan Ibragimov in 2007 and who had failed an earlier attempt at claiming the WBC title when he was knocked down three times by Lennox Lewis to lose by technical knockout in the fifth round.
Meanwhile Wladimir Klitschko, the WBO, IBF and IBO champion, revisits an old foe in Peter on September 11; the same Peter he won a unanimous decision over in 2005 and who, three years later, Vitali stopped in the eighth round to take his newly captured WBC title.
Needless to say, the challengers in the heavyweight division are far from competitive and with Haye likely to tread the canvas with Harrison, things can only get better, but not any time soon.
HEAVYWEIGHT BOXING NEWS:
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