OnThEGRiND BoXiNG

Saturday June 6th, 2009
by Alex McIntyre - OnThEGRiND BoXiNG Scotland

Wladimir Klitschko will push ahead with his June 20th date at the Veltins Arena, Gelsenkirchen by taking on WBA belt holder Ruslan Chagaev, The “White Tyson” Chagaev will step in as the replacement for the injured David Haye, leaving the Hayemaker cursing his luck and seemingly out of the picture for the foreseeable future.

It’s been a bad couple of weeks for Heavyweight boxing with the whole sorry WBA mess taking place in Helsinki last weekend, followed by a potential killer blow to the division with the late withdrawal of Haye through injury just 2 and a half weeks before the much anticipated showdown with Klitschko, but there may be some light at the end of this dark tunnel.

The recent turn of events may have actually have done the Boxing world a favour for while many fans will be left disappointed by the cancellation of the Haye/Klitschko fight, the prospect of Wlad now taking on a proven Heavyweight in Chagaev will clear up a little of the fragmented mess going on in the division. The WBO,WBA,IBF, and IBO straps will be on the line along with the Ring Magazine Belt and with a sell out 60,000 crowd already assured the stage is set for one of the biggest unification fights of the year.

Wladimir has kept his focus throughout the week, while many would be climbing the walls and hurling obscenities. In refusing to lower himself to taunting Haye for the late withdrawal, the Ukrainian has stuck to his guns and continued to train. While toying with the possibility of pushing back the fight until July 11th he decided that he could not be left waiting any longer, and set about coming up with the best possible replacement. In Ruslan Chagaev he may have found the perfect answer.

Chagaev is unbeaten in 25 bouts and currently ranked number three in the World by Ring Magazine. While he doesn’t excel in any one particular area, he’s a tough southpaw with good technical, skills and could provide Wlad with a tougher test than he’s been accustomed to as of late. Giving up a 7” reach advantage and 5” in height may look on paper to be a daunting task for the German based Uzbek, but size has never been an issue for Chagaev, although it’s safe to say he’s also never faced anyone the quality of Klitschko.

So where does all of this leave David Haye ? Klitschko will almost certainly be called on to make a mandatory defence of his IBF belt against Alexander Povetkin later this year leaving the earliest possible opportunity for a fight with Haye to be around March or April of 2010. One likely scenario could be a fight with Chris Arreola in the states in late July or early August giving Haye time to fully recover from his back problem, and Arreola a chance to finally get into shape. With Haye now not having fought since November 2008 there will be no time to lose for the Bermondsey man, and a fight with Arreola could draw sufficient interest from fans and TV companies alike while he bides his time waiting for his next shot at the big one.