08.08.04 – By Frank Lotierzo – GlovedFist@Juno.com – Let’s see, on the horizon we have the following fights signed to take place before the end of this year, Hopkins-De La Hoya, Trinidad-Mayorga, Johnson-Perez, Brewster-Meehan, Spinks-Gonzalez, Wright-Mosley II, Byrd-McCline, and Ruiz-Golota. Did I mention that they all have firm dates set.
My question is, what’s up with the Heavyweight who’s perceived to be the best in the division, Vitali Klitschko? The other day I happened to see Ring Magazine’s new rankings as of August 2nd. As I started at the top and scanned down, I noticed that just about all the Heavyweights they have listed in their top-ten are scheduled to fight in the next few months. Only Monte Barrett, Fres Oquendo, and Joe Mesi, are not scheduled to fight, the other seven are penciled in for sometime later this year.
Vitali Klitschko, who Ring recognizes as the Champion has nothing on the horizon. Since winning the vacant WBC title versus Corrie Sanders this past April, we haven’t seen or heard much from him. Somehow I think he was waiting to see what happened with Tyson in his fight with Williams? Now with Tyson losing to Williams, any hopes of Vitali possibly fighting him in the near future are now gone.
One problem Vitali has is Don King. It’s virtually impossible for him to fight any of the other three alphabet Champs to unify the titles, since they are all promoted by King. King wants options on any fighter who fights one of his fighters, which I personally think should be illegal, so that eliminates any chances of Klitschko vs. Byrd, Ruiz, or even Brewster.
Vitali, we have a problem! With Lewis so far sticking to his guns regarding his retirement, that pretty much takes him out of the mix. Lennox is no fool, the longer he’s out the less the odds of him coming back. With the two fighters who could’ve provided Klitschko the biggest and most lucrative fight, Lewis and Tyson, off the table for now at least, who’s left? Here’s a hint. He’s been running his mouth issuing challenges to all fighters from Middleweight to Heavyweight, he’s also become the new darling of the fans, and he feels overlooked for big fights. To go along with that, he’s available for a November or December date.
The man Vitali should literally scream for is Mr. James “Lights Out” Toney! Since beating Evander Holyfield, Toney has been yelling for a fight with Vitali, among others. As of this writing, Toney is scheduled to fight undefeated Cruiserweight Rydell Booker on September 23rd. There has also been talk of Toney possibly fighting former Champ Hasim Rahman on the Ruiz-Golta, Byrd-McCline undercard November 13th. Toney has been quoted as saying two poignant things over the last few weeks, “I’ll knock Vitali’s ass out,” and he referred to the November 13th card as “being shit.”
Somebody please wake Vitali up! I know it’s not in his personality to talk trash and match wits with Toney, but he can help solve Toney’s problem of not getting mentioned for any big fights, not to mention his own. All that basically has to happen is for Vitali Klitschko to make some type of statement indicating that he’d be more than happy and willing to defend his WBC title against Toney. Forget Toney fighting Rahman. Yeah, it wouldn’t be bad if there were no other fights out there to be made, but that’s not the case.
Toney would be the perfect opponent for Vitali to make his first title defense against. He would bring excitement and publicity to the promotion, it would generate fan interest, he’s among the top five ranked Heavyweights in the World, on top of that he’s good and can fight. Oh, and Toney has told anyone that would listen that “he’d knock Vitali’s ass out.” Wouldn’t it be great to see if Toney’s ring experience and cunningness could offset Vitali’s size and strength?
This is what’s so frustrating about the sport of Boxing. Here we have Klitschko who many Boxing observers think is the standard bearer of the division, and Toney who those same observers think may offer him his stiffest challenge, both with an open calender and not a mention of them fighting each other. And we can’t even blame Don King, at least not that I’m aware of