BoxRec

Well it was the only way the Rock was going to get himself a title. The talk about Vitali being scared of a faded lump like Rahman is pretty lame.

It's a pain in the arse he keeps getting injured, and he should hand over the title if he can't get in the ring by the end of 2005, but I'm sure he knows he'd crush Rahman easily enough if they did meet.

I don't think I'd want to see Toney/Tua - Toney has always been a favorite of mine, and he'd probably school Tua if it did come off, but what if the Tuaman managed to land a real bomb? The thought of an overweight middleweight taking a genuine heavyweight puncher's best shots gives me the horrors. Toney has such a great chin, if stunned he'd probably take more than was good for his health.
Could be very nasty.

Klitschko still has the belt, according to fightnews:

Klitschko gets reprieve

WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko will reportedly undergo arthroscopic surgery this week to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee, then will have 90 days to reschedule his mandatory defense against interim champion Hasim Rahman according to the Baltimore Sun. The paper says Klitschko and WBC president Jose Sulaiman spoke Sunday and Sulaiman agreed to gave Klitschko another 90 days to face Rahman, pending the result of his surgery. The Rahman's manager Steve Nelson was descibed as "enraged" by the decision. Yesterday, Rahman's promoter Don King claimed that Klitschko had vacated his title by not facing Rahman on November 12 and that Rahman immediately assumed his crown according to the rules and regulations of the WBC. Promoter Bob Arum, who won a purse bid to promote the fight, stated the event can still take place on HBO-PPV in February, March or April.

Torn meniscus? Knee surgery?


He's not going to be fit for a championship match in 90 days.



Enough, I say.

A fighter surely can't help getting injured?

dandantheweatherman wrote:A fighter surely can't help getting injured?

That is true but it is about finding a ballance as if just bing injored made it okay Toney Dodson would still hold the British title.

The words Ruiz and Byrd haunt my dreams, and Vitali is disgraceful with all of his pull outs, he's almost worse than 'mentally unstable' Danny Williams. Rahman/Barrett was an absolute stinker, Byrd/Williamson was a stinker, Brewster destroyed a well over the hill Golota and was outboxed by Krasniqi until stopping him, and Vitali has had 2 crap fights in 2 years. The only decent heavyweight fight I can remember in recent years is Samil Sam against Dennis Bakhtov, and that's a sad state.

The heavyweight division is a complete shambles but at least by having an undisputed champion we can get rid of some of these shameful losers once and for all. The only heavyweight I have any interest in is James Toney, he beat Ruiz without getting out of first gear, he outclassed Guinn and we all know about his previous fights against Holyfield, Jirov etc. I think Toney is the main contender and even at his age likes to stay busy. Vitali will never have the guts to fight Toney.

If there was this so called tournament to crown a champion as there has been in the pipeline for seemingly a lifetime, expect to see the likes of Byrd and Ruiz on the trash heap and the emergence of some new talent, hopefully in the form of Brock, Peter, Chagaev, Audley Harrison, Valuev, etc. These types of fighters would bring interest into an extremely dull and stale division. As it stands, we have Byrd who lost to McCline but Jameel was robbed and he's IBF champion, Ruiz definitely lost to both Golota (destroyed in 50 seconds by Brewster) and Toney and he's still WBA champion, it's just a pathetic mess. King needs to pull his big afro mess out of his arse and deliver the fights he spouts about.

dandantheweatherman wrote:A fighter surely can't help getting injured?

True enough, but genuine or otherwise you have to eventually strip the guy and let someone have a turn or we will be waiting forever for this farce to end. Where oh where are you saviour of the Heavyweight division?!

Good greaf how did the HW devision get this bad! I think the calls for a tornament are the best way forward but the problem is that the promoters who control the fighters who would not do so well in against the others at the top Brewster Ruiz etc probably have no interest in putting there guys on the line if they can possibly help it.

If only we could go back to the days when all it took was for Hollyfild to get into the ring with tyson winning the WBA title then after a rematch going into a fight with Michael Moorer the IBF title holder, make one defence then fight Lewis the WBC champion, (Lewis gets Jobed) re match and in the space of 4 fights (one of them in the exceptional circumstances of that draw so in reality it could have been 3) of the Moorer unification we have an undisputed HW champion.

Seems simple when you look at it like that.