From what we saw last weekend Vitali might well be fighting very close to his peak ability. His stamina and general conditioning seem to be that of a 33/34 year old, not a 38 year old man. Then again, we all know that fighters tend to age rapidly overnight rather than gradually. Should Vitali now embark on a world-tour of going after every bum that lines up, fighting 5 times per year for the next 18 months? That would be a total of approx 7-8 fights before he retires. He could take turns between fighting opponents in Germany and the US. An example fight schedule: 1. Kingpin Johnson 2. Oliver McCall 3. Oladnier Solis 4. Hasim Rahman 5. Winner of Golotha/Adamek 6. James Toney 7. Oleg Maskaev Vitali seems to be in a shape that he could easily dispose of one of these guys every 10-15 weeks. None of these fighters poses a legit contender in their own right (either too old, too inexperienced, too inactive), but could the accumulation of opponents - should he win against all of them - lend a tad more historic credibility to Vitali's resume?
I don't think that a bum of the month arrangement would do boxing much good. In fact, it would only fuel the arguements of the critics who say that the current heavyweight crop is so incredibly weak.. I do however think that Vitali Klitschko needs to stay active though.. Three times per year against decent to very good opposition should be sufficient to keep him fresh. fighting 6 times per year against guys like Toney, Rahman and Ruiz would only taint his legacy...
I wouldn't call that a bum of the month club myself. In relative terms, barring Chagaev, Povetkin, Chambers, or his own brother, those names listed represent the best available - sad though that is.
Vitali should be fighting 4 fights per year against the best hw's out there he hasn't faced yet and win by KO: Valuev, Haye, Chambers, Povetkin, Toney (and potentially Tua or Briggs if they get some good wins behind them). A KO victory against Valuev would do more for his legacy than beating all the other chumbs combined.
Vitali did a mistake by taking KJ out of the fight with Solis, IMO, he should have let them fight it out, which probably would have made the new WBC#1 ranked contestant and then sign the winner to fight in December. He has to deal with Maskaev too, maybe he should take it out of the road sooner than later and use this december date for that.
The problem is getting fighters and promotors to commit to a deal and stick with. Heavyweight fights seem so difficult to make these days, and even the contracts that do get signed, sometimes result in people backing out at the last minute for whatever reason.. The business and political side of the game has played a bigger role in boxing's downfall than the the fighters themselves....