Thoughts On Wladimir Klitschko's Next Bout

I recently began thinking about how the next W.Klitschko bout will be received by the community here. I was thinking, who can he fight that would stop any sort of insults towards him fighting a bum, nobody, etc.

I went to BoxRec and looked at the upcoming bouts for some of the "top" heavyweights. I realise they aren't that reliable but it does give you an idea. I'm using a schedule based on a 4 month period in between fights for training and promotions and contract signings etc. So lets take a look at the current situation for Dr. Wladimir Klitschko shall we?

Samuel Peter: Scheduled to fight in October against Oleg Maskaev. Barring any sort of injury he will be unavailable until February 2008 at the earliest.

Oleg Maskaev: If he wins see the explanation listed for Sam Peter.

Ruslan Chagaev: Unavailable Indefinately for Hep B infection I believe.

Nicolay Valuev: Scheduled to fight Bergeron in September. Will be unavailable until January 2008 at the earliest. Ignoring the fact that he hasn't beaten anyone of note, and Bergeron, while undefeated, doesn't change that fact.

Sultan Ibragimov: Scheduled to fight Evander Holyfield in October. Unavailable until February 2008.

Evander Holyfield: See Sultan Ibragimov.

David Tua: Fighting Saul Montana this month, at his current rate he will be unavailable or unwilling to schedule another fight until possibly well after February 2008.

The following are reported to be involved in Heavyweight Tournaments. Unless I'm mistaken they will be unavailable for a long period of time if this is truely the case.

Taras Bidenko
Tony Thompson
John Ruiz (laughable)
Eddie Chambers
Chris Byrd (already beaten by Wladimir)
Calvin Brock (already beaten by Wladimir recently)
Serguei Lyakhovich
Alexander Povetkin

There are other names out there, but truely, which name below would get Wlad any respect. Chances are he will want to fight again between now and February 2008..so what are his options?

Vladimir Virchis: Not sure whats going on with him.
Matt Skelton:
Hasim Rahman: Only Klitschko that has a reason to fight him is Vitali. For Wladimir it means nothing, and Rahman isn't worth the time at this point in my opinion.
Oliver McCall: Over 40 years old, and not in the Hopkins level for 40+ year olds.
Alexander Dimitrenko: Never heard of him, have never seen him fight. Maybe somebody could shed some light on this guy?
Chris Arreola: Green as can be. Not even close to ready for this kind of fight.

It seems W.Klitschko is doomed to be riduculed for his choice of fights at least until next year :think.

Your opinions?

P.S.
I didn't intend for this thread to be for bashing W.Klitschko. I intend to have an intelligent discussion as to his options at this point in the year and what would be the best options for him.

 

I think Virchis is the best available option. I would like to see a rematch with Sanders as well. Unfortunately he isn't anywhere near the title picture so it would most likely not be viewed well by many. After seeing how some people reacted to his fight with Brewster he would get even worse with Sanders. At least Brewster was fighting for HW titles in his last..5 fights I believe. Sanders however has not been near a title fight since early 2004.

 

:nono We don't need another Tyson vs Douglas on our hands.

 

Well..Briggs just lost and put on an unbelievably horrible performance. He also had a horrible performance in the fight where he won the championship. Preceded by a string of wins over absolute nobodies. I didn't put him on the list because in my mind, after his last "performances" he doesn't deserve to be.

Toney, a split decision over the afformentioned Danny Batchelder (ranked 100 by boxrec) and a one-sided loss to Sam Peter doesn't quite put him in title contention. I would probably watch this, and its definately a better choice than Briggs or Rahman in my opinion. But with Virchis out there, I don't think Toney is the best choice. And I'd rather see him fight Jirov myself.

Rahman hasn't done anything of late, and I think if he is going to fight a Klitschko he needs to fight Vitali first. That is the only Rahman-Klitschko fight that I think has any meaning.

 

I'd like to see W.Klitschko vs Valuev myself. Just because of the sheer size involved. And I think with Wladimir's skills and Valuev's less than powerful punches it would make for an entertaining fight. But again, he most likely won't be available until late January 2008, and that is if the fight is made immediately after the fight with Bergeron is over and everything is fast tracked. I can't see him being available until mid February myself.

Thompson is said to be involved with a HW tournament with three others I believe. So assuming he wins it, that would be 2 fights. Assuming they are made in the least amount of time that would be around 8-10 months? Then he wins a shot at another title, so thats another 4 months or so. Assuming he wins everything he won't be fighting Wlad until nearly 2009.

 

Well he is available I guess, with the steroid sentence reduced. While he isn't up there with regards to being worthy of a title shot(taking his last two performances into account) he is still a bigger name than, for instance, Virchis. It could happen definately.