A fight with Sam Peter would probably be the most relevant fight for him now , if Vitali loses or breaks a nail in training camp, its on.
no doubt about, chagaev wants no part of wlad. people should note wlad went 50-50 with iggy to get that fight done. he will fight anyone and even take a hit in the wallet to do so. the problem with valuev is that he is associated with convicted felon don king and he'll want options on wlad since he knows valuev will get hammered. i just dont see any further unification in the future unless vitali pulls up lame again and virchis or gomez steps in, beats peter, then faces wlad. i agree with this. wlad would become ring champ and add a 3rd major belt. imo peter wants to fight wlad again but his management wont let it happen. don king has shown in the past, he will only put his titilists in there with hand-picked and low-risk fighters. look at byrd and brewster for recent examples. wlad-peter II will not come off. king will only unifiy if can control the winner. wlad will not sell his soul
Thompson.....and quickly. There's no reason this fight shouldn't happen any later than May or June. Wlad will easily dispose of "The Tiger". Then Wlad should aim for the Valuev/Chagaev winner (hopefully Niko!).
He should fight Peter next, or Thompson. A fight with Rahman or Tua would also be cool. He WILL fight Thompson. And Peter will fight Vitali.
I can't understand why some of you keep saying fighters who are already lineup up to fight someone else......Chagaev, Peter, Valuev.....none of those guys are avialable, so why even say their names? Of who is currently available, he should fight Povetkin, THEN, start to pressure the Chagaev Valuev winner for further unification. But that'll be a hard fight to get made, cause neither Valuev/King or Chag/Kohl are likely to want to risk fighting Wlad. And Vitali will then have the WBC back, so that unification possibility is out. But for now, out of who is available, I think he should fight the undefeated, Povetkin, and get that out of the way while he has this time to do so. Povetkin will be seen as a very credible opponent, given that he has some good wins recently, and has yet to be beaten. Sure would be more appealing than seeing Wlad fight that waste of space, THompson. Thompson is a horrible thought that almost makes me nautious. What an unworthy, unappealing fight a Thompson fight would be.
I think he should have done it a few years ago though. I heard that they tried to get Purrity as a comeback opponent but that they could never agree on the money.