Wladimir Klitschko injured, will not be fighting December 10

By James Slater - 10/24/2016 - Comments

Thanks to the man who has all the boxing news, Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, we now know Wladimir Klitschko will definitely NOT be fighting IBF heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua on December 10; nor will the 40-year-old ex-champ be squaring up with anyone on that date. Klitschko, who has had a history of pulling out of/delaying fights due to injury, has picked up another one; apparently to his calf.

Joshua will now have to find a suitable challenger for his scheduled Dec 10 defence in Manchester (and the word now in some quarters is that fellow Brit David Price is the favorite to land the fight) while it is understood that talks between the Joshua and Klitschko camps will be ongoing, with a possible fight being arranged for a big UK stadium next summer.

This latest turn of events has only added to the overall disappointment the heavyweight division – once the glamour weight class of the sport – has given fight fans. What with world ruler Tyson Fury’s well-documented problems, Klitschko’s non-appearance throughout 2016 and the fact that we have not seen a single heavyweight fight that could be described as memorable, this year has indeed been one big dud, big guy-wise.

Thankfully, we have seen some great lower-weight battles this year, and we still have fights such as Ward-Kovalev, Pacquiao-Vargas, Lomachenko-Walters and a few others to look forward to.

Klitschko, now likely to be out of action until next spring or so, has never experienced such an inactive spell in his entire career. At age 40 (41 in March) Wladimir may not have too many fights left in him.