Vitali Klitschko is the official challenger of WBC champ Lennox Lewis

03.03 - Klaus-Peter Kohl: “The WBC confirmed it a couple of times in several letters.”

Hamburg – Dr. Vitali Klitschko who is fighting for Hamburg’s Universum Box-Promotion is the official challenger of WBC heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. That’s what the World Boxing Council already decided on their convention in December 2002 in Tokyo with the majority of votes.

“We are completely surprised about the public comments that the lawyer of Lennox Lewis made in the US last weekend”, Universum boss Klaus-Peter Kohl said. “It’s simply not true.”

Lawyer Judd Burstein spread that Dr. Vitali Klitschko is to fight an elimination bout against WBC #2 ranked Evander Holyfield in order to become Lennox Lewis’s challenger.

Universum Box-Promotion wants to make clear: The World Boxing Council already decided in December 2002 in Tokyo that an elimination fight is not necessary and that Vitali Klitschko is the legitimate challenger. That’s what the WBC and the organization’s president Jose Sulaiman confirmed several times, explicitly and black on white to Universum. Thus it was incorrect when Burstein stated that Universum needed to “ask the WBC to accept Vitali Klitschko as challenger.”

Klaus-Peter Kohl: “That’s nonsense. There is no such procedure. We received the confirmation of the WBC in writing. In addition we have a contract with Mr. Lewis for a fight on either April 12 or April 19 in the US. If Lewis doesn’t defend his title against Vitali until June the WBC has to declare the title vacant.”

Dr. Vitali Klitschko personally sued the WBC at a civil court in Nevada. There is no decision of the court so far.