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Swiping away all the unspoken rumours about a possible retirement, Wladimir Klitschko now announced he wants to fight Joshua in March or April 2017 and “hopefully it’ll be for three titles”. But before clashing with Klitschko in spring, Joshua will defend his IBF belt on December 10th, against who? - still in the makes. For the time being, the array the heavyweight division was thrown into when Fury defeated ‘mighty Klitschko’ in November, is not going to miraculously disappear. The only thing that seems certain at the moment is that Klitschko wants back his belts.
The heavyweight-boxing hierarchy was turned upside down when Fury defeated Klitschko almost a year ago and is now probably as twisted as the UFC women’s strawweight division’s pecking order is since Holly Holm knocked out Ronda Rousey. However, during the past year, in contrary to the UFC-girls, the heavyweight-bad-boys unfortunately provided us with more action outside the ring than inside it.
After a decade of ruling the heavyweight division, 12 months ago Klitschko lost his IBF, WBO, and WBA titles to Tyson Fury – who lost all the belts again as quickly as he had won them, without even stepping into the ring. As the IBF wanted the new champion to defend the title against mandatory challenger Glazkov but Fury was contracted to rematch Klitschko, the IBF without further ado, stripped him of belt number one – which now, after a short detour via Charles Martin, belongs to Anthony Joshua. After he had backed out of two set fights with Klitschko, earlier this month Fury then vacated belt number two and three, the WBA ‘super’ and the WBO title.
Originally Joshua and Klitschko were set to fight each other on December 10th of which the 40-year-old Ukrainian pulled out due to an injury. But Wladimir Klitschko wants his titles back, starting in spring with Anthony Joshua in ‘the biggest heavyweight fight for years’.
“I’ve never thought about stopping, not once, after the defeat and losing my belts”, Klitschko told the German newspaper Bild and went on: “As long as I can perform in the ring, am fit and motivated, I’ll keep going.”
Although he has not stepped into the ring for the longest time in his entire career, Klitschko is confident: “There will be a couple of big, spectacular fights with me in the ring.” – Let’s hope that for once all good things come in fours and Klitschko’s fourth try to reclaim the heavyweight belt(s) will result in a spectacular clash with Anthony Joshua in Spring.
