15.06.07 – By Gary Jones: Former WBC/WBO heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (35-2, 34 KO’s) is preparing to make his boxing comeback bout against Jameel McCline (38-7-3, 23 KO’s) on September 22, which will take place in Germany, according to the latest boxing news from ESPN. Vitali, 35, has been out of boxing for the last couple of years, last fighting in December 2004 against Danny Williams, whom he stopped in an 8th round TKO.
If Vitali can get by McCline, 37, then the big Ukrainian’s next bout will be against the winner of the WBC heavyweight Oleg Maskaev’s bout against Samuel Peter, which takes place on September 29, 2007. Vitali was supposed to be fighting Maskaev instead of McCline, however, Vitali declined to go forward with the bout, letting Sam Peter, the number one ranked challenger in the world boxing council go take the bout instead.
However, It remains to be seen whether Vitali’s increasingly brittle body can stand up under the physical strain of training for the bout, especially with his history of training camp injuries. Add in the fact that Vitali is older, and has been inactive for almost three years, it makes things even tougher for him. At this point, nothing can be guaranteed that he’ll even make it to the bout.
Nevertheless, with the amount of money involved in a future bout with either Maskaev or Peter, I’d be willing to guess that Vitali is being as careful as possible to avoid re-injuring his tender right knee. On that subject, McCline has problems of his own, dislocating his knee in the 3rd round of his bout with then WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev in January 2007.