12.05.08 – By César Pancorvo: Vitali Klitschko’s comeback must be one of the strangest of all time. His retirement in 2005, after cancelling a fight against Hasim Rahman four times, was just as complicated. His last bout as a pro boxer was a title defence against Danny Williams in December 2004, and after that a fight against Hasim Rahman was scheduled for April 2005; it was great news, everyone started thinking that Vitali would be an active champion that could be a good replacement or successor to Lennox Lewis, but then the fight was cancelled and rescheduled one time, then another time, etc. In November, he finally decided to retire, days before the fight.. I still believe that his campaign for the 2006 Kiev mayoral elections had influence in that decision, because Vitali had political aspirations. Well, he still has them.
During the deplorable WBC reign of Oleg Maskaev, and after the results of the rematch between Sam Peter and James Toney, in early 2007, Vitali announced his comeback. More than a year ago! When he announced it, his plans involved a fight against the belt holder, Oleg Maskaev, which he could have beaten, but at the end he was put against Jameel McCline, as a tune-up bout to prepare for the Maskaev-Peter winner. Vitali injured again and never faced McCline in the ring. Now, finally, the duel against the WBC beltholder –Peter, not Maskaev- has been agreed and will happen later this year, in October. But the story of Vitali’s comeback has been unfortunate at best; ridiculous, funny and sad at the same time: he will have his first comeback fight almost two years after announcing his comeback.
His retirement started in November 2005, when he vacated the WBC and Ring titles, and ended in January 2007. Fifteen months. His comeback started in January 2007 and his first comeback fight will be in October 2008. More than twenty months!
Peter’s fight against Vitali Klitschko will happen –if there’s no injury– in October and meanwhile he will have an optional defence. Obviously, no top contender is mentioned for this optional defence, it would be too risky. The most notable candidate for this July fight is Andrew Golota, who I rank in the Top20.
(A Wladimir Klitschko-Sam Peter rematch, which, according to many, is the most important fight in the current heavyweight division, seems very unlikely, unless Peter beats Vitali later this year and then Wladimir rematches him in a “Klitschko revenge” kind of fight. Wladimir’s agenda, however, doesn’t give him much time to fight Peter, though, because he has to take care of Tony Thompson, then Alexander Povetkin, and also there are rumours of a fight against David Haye, and Alexander Dimitrenko might be declared the next WBO mandatory challenger.)
-Terrible news the ones about Judah-Mosley. That was one of the most awaited duels this years had until this week. Judah and Mosley both lost to Cotto and this fight would have been the ideal chance of returning. The winner would have returned with a renewed prestige and the loser would have been advised to retire. Now, what will be their next fights? I think Judah will be given another title shot in the future. Mosley should look for a rematch against Cotto –their fight was too close.
-During the last months, the pestilent idea of Ricky Hatton ducking Junior Witter was travelling in many confused minds. Not only Hatton is levels above Witter as a fighter, but also: did anyone actually think that a guy that fought Kostya Tszyu, Jose Luis Castillo, and Floyd Mayweather, was going to fear anybody?
Two conclusions from the Bradley-Witter fight:
1) The 24-year old Timothy Bradley is a good fighter overall, a complete boxer and has a future in the Light Welterweight division.
2) Ricky Hatton versus Paul Malignaggi is now the most interesting fight in the division. Two characters, two styles.