Boxing: Klitschko/Rahman off!

This is the fourth time that this has happened. From what I have read, Vitali was complaining of pain in his knee that he was feeling a few days ago. He went to get his knee checked and it was revealed that Vitali had no problems with the knee. Vitali was given a brace for precautionary measures. Well, Vitali didn't like the brace so the fight is canceled. The thing that I can't believe is that Vitali has avoided fighting Rahman 4 times. Rahman is made to order for Vitali in every way and yet this fight cannot get off the ground. Truly disappointing.

The heavyweight division needs to get the top eight guys, and get down to business. It would be great to have a heavyweight champion. It won't happen by appointing someone. At this point, I think the model used after Ali was stripped makes sense -- though it was wrong then, of course, with Lewis having retired, it would work.

The tournament format would work well, I think. Supposedly, Don King has been trying to get the four alphabet champions to have a tournament, but Vitali does not want to participate. Od course, this is Don King we are talking about here, he could(and probably is) lying about all of this.

I read that VK is having surgery on his knee this week. He apparently is being given a short time to reschedule the fight with Rahman, or the "title" will change hands. Surely these people will run out of ways to discredit their "titles."

I got out one of my old scrapebooks on the tournament held after Ali was stripped of his title. There were a couple things that were odd, including the decision by Joe Frazier to not participate. A young Frazier and an old Sonny liston should have been included. Actually, even Buster Mathis would have added to it. Perhaps it should be 16, rather than 8.

It got me thinking about Leotis Martin, a Philly fighter who would end up even better after he lost in the tournament. He wanted to fight Frazier, and might have done well, except he had a detached retina (from the Liston fight, I believe) that ended his career.

I always though that it was a crime that Liston was not allowed to participate. From everything that I have heard, Liston was still something of a name at that time and could still fight, so i feel that he should have been in the tournament.

I was also wondering, how was the tournament perceived by the public and the media when it happened?

recognize it as being for the title. Nat Fleischer was a strange old man, but he knew titles were won and lost in the ring.

Blacks and anti-war people didn't recognize it, either. Boxing people had serious reservations about Liston being kept out. Hard to take it serious with Patterson in, and Liston out. It was interesting that in each and every fight, the underdog won. Jimmy Ellis was a good fighter, but no champion. When he fought Rubin Carter, if Rubin hadn't left his corner, Jimmy sure wasn't leaving his. It was hard to imagine him winning the middleweight title, or the light heavyweight title as he gained weight.

Add to it the Frazier vs Mathis fight, for the title of five states. Black nationalists had protests outside the MSG for 24 hours before the fight. Of course, Joe was friends with Ali then, and actually helped him out financially in those days. Frazier always was a class act back then. His victory over Mathis was a tougher fight than many remember it as being.

Howard Cosell was a respected voice in those days. He made clear that Ali was the champ. Ali then made clear he was not planning to box again, and so the Frazier-Ellis match was when people really started to think of there being a new champion. It was Joe at his best, up until the first Ali match.

Thanks a lot!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/4420704.stm
Both the BBC and AP have reported that Vitali has decided to call it quits. The knee injury is cited as the cause.

So I guess this means that Don King will have his tournament after all. Ladies and Gentlemen, the next undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, Lamon Brewster!

that Rahman was "given" the title. Hopefully, one day he will box for the heavyweight championship, the real one which is won and lost in the ring, not granted for previous life experience.

He won it when he beat Monte Barret in that snooze-fest in August. I'm not against the idea of having an interim champion in the case of the titleholder is injured. The idea being the interim champ will face the real champ in his next fight to decide the issue. In the case of Rahman being made "full" champion, I wish the WBC would have just had Rahman fight the #1 contender to decide who was champ.