By James Slater – Two big names from the sport, Ronald “Winky” Wright and world heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko, have both fallen foul of injuries this weekend, with their upcoming fights being cancelled or postponed as a result.
Wright, who was to have returned to the ring against Britain’s Matthew Macklin, after having had a considerable layoff, hurt his left hand in sparring, and that put paid to his planned April 9th fight with Macklin. The main event of Marcos Maidana Vs. Erik Morales will still go ahead, but there is no word yet on whether or not Macklin will be given a late-replacement foe..
Of course, the big news is the postponement, for the second time, of the Wladimir Klitschko-Derek Chisora fight. Last December, ahead of the original date for the fight, “Dr. Steel Hammer” was forced to pull out due to suffering a torn abdominal muscle. Reset for this April 30th, the Chisora defence has now fallen through again; perhaps meaning the fight will never happen at all.
In a statement, the 34-year-old who holds the Ring Magazine, IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight titles said he is “very sorry for the cancellation,” but that he is “convinced that I will soon stage another fight in Mannheim.”
Fans are already speculating that the next man Klitschko will fight will be none other than David Haye. Talks reportedly went very well with regards to finally getting this fight on, with both champs claiming they are sure the fight will happen in Europe on July 2nd. Now, with Klitschko again pulling out of the Chisora fight – the April fight Wladimir chose to take being the one remaining issue Haye had with regards to fighting Klitschko – we might, just might, be close to hearing an announcement that the unification clash is on.
No-one is saying Klitschko’s abdominal injury is not genuine, but the timing of his pulling out of the fight with “Del Boy” sure is curious. If Wladimir and Haye have indeed reached a deal, and if they do fight in July, it will be interesting to see what Chisora and his team do about things. Will Chisora’s promoter Frank Warren look to sue Klitschko if his fighter loses out on his big opportunity?
Fans worldwide would, of course, prefer to see Klitschko fight Haye instead of Chisora, but it will not be fair for the British and Commonwealth champion to have undergone TWO costly training camps and then been robbed of his world title shot. Speculation is all it is at the moment, but fans are seemingly convinced Klitschko will fight Haye next and that this is why he has done what he’s done.
Time will tell.