Good news everyone(heavyweight unification :) )

Big Ears

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news.php?p=11444&more=1

The first step is always the hardest and with that everything becomes much easier .

Chagaev and Ibragimov are two decent title holders but neither is a superstar .
But they(and more specifically their team) have shown ambition and belief in themselves to prove they are a bit special , they have that something different and that they can be a real champion .

I expected Chagaev's team to be ultra cautious and for Ibragimov to have a few easy defenses before being put in a unification match .

Wladamir Klitschko was going to be fighting Oleg Maskaev in a unification but the sanctioning bodies put a stop to that . However that shows a positive that both Wlad and Maskaev are willing to unify and are looking to do so .
Wladamir has said he doesn't consider himself a real heavyweight champion as there are 3 other men just like him . He certainly wants to be 'the man' .


So currently we have:
Ruslan Chagaev v Sultan Ibragimov-WBA/WBO titles
Wladamir Klitschko v Lamon Brewster-IBF title defense
Oleg Maskaev v Sam Peter-WBC title defense

Chagaev v Ibragimov is a pickem and once it's not a draw or controversial we will have major progress .

Wlad will most likely gain revenge on Brewster and will have some free time before having to defend a mandatory . The IBF #1 and #2 spots are vacant(as is their policy) and can only be filled by eliminators . Brewster is ranked #3 so that will be him out of the way and that would leave Brock , Byrd , Valuev and Virchis but Valuev is WBA mandatory so won't take it and since Byrd and Brock have already been hammered by Klitschko they mightn't want it . Basically what I'm saying is it could take some time to find 4 men to agree to eliminators and then get the fights over with . So Wlad is going to have time to unify .

Now the tricky part , the WBC have gotten very far ahead of themselves and pretty much ****ed everything up .
Maskaev has to fight Peter in October in a mandatory , no problem there I fancy Peter to win and he(and his camp) would be more than willing to unify against anyone . But first he would have to defend against the comebacking Vitali Klitschko . Klitschko won't fight his brother but will unify with anyone else . However before the winner has to even think about unification they have to waste their time and beat Oliver McCall .
Now that's a very long time away so I assume the WBC would be tired with the lack of sanctioning fees in the mean time and make a few eliminators to fill the coffers , meaning that Maskaev/Peter/Klitschko/McCall would probably have to defend in mandatory before they can even think of unifying .

So the WBC champion will be free to unify sometime in 2009 :rolleyes: .
Now Wladamir isn't going to be waiting around so he(and his camp;) ) will be looking at the Chagaev v Ibragimov winner . Taking a wild assumption that Wlad wins that would make him WBA/IBF/WBO and Vitali wins the WBC , then we're left in a situation in which there is no final unification till one of them loses . If Peter was to come through those WBC fights then we'd have no problem though .

All in all this is a big positive , as I said the first step is the hardest and after that things can sometimes just fall into place .

nacho libre

Big Ears wrote:

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news.php?p=11444&more=1

The first step is always the hardest and with that everything becomes much easier .

Chagaev and Ibragimov are two decent title holders but neither is a superstar .
But they(and more specifically their team) have shown ambition and belief in themselves to prove they are a bit special , they have that something different and that they can be a real champion .

I expected Chagaev's team to be ultra cautious and for Ibragimov to have a few easy defenses before being put in a unification match .

Wladamir Klitschko was going to be fighting Oleg Maskaev in a unification but the sanctioning bodies put a stop to that . However that shows a positive that both Wlad and Maskaev are willing to unify and are looking to do so .
Wladamir has said he doesn't consider himself a real heavyweight champion as there are 3 other men just like him . He certainly wants to be 'the man' .


So currently we have:
Ruslan Chagaev v Sultan Ibragimov-WBA/WBO titles
Wladamir Klitschko v Lamon Brewster-IBF title defense
Oleg Maskaev v Sam Peter-WBC title defense

Chagaev v Ibragimov is a pickem and once it's not a draw or controversial we will have major progress .

Wlad will most likely gain revenge on Brewster and will have some free time before having to defend a mandatory . The IBF #1 and #2 spots are vacant(as is their policy) and can only be filled by eliminators . Brewster is ranked #3 so that will be him out of the way and that would leave Brock , Byrd , Valuev and Virchis but Valuev is WBA mandatory so won't take it and since Byrd and Brock have already been hammered by Klitschko they mightn't want it . Basically what I'm saying is it could take some time to find 4 men to agree to eliminators and then get the fights over with . So Wlad is going to have time to unify .

Now the tricky part , the WBC have gotten very far ahead of themselves and pretty much ****ed everything up .
Maskaev has to fight Peter in October in a mandatory , no problem there I fancy Peter to win and he(and his camp) would be more than willing to unify against anyone . But first he would have to defend against the comebacking Vitali Klitschko . Klitschko won't fight his brother but will unify with anyone else . However before the winner has to even think about unification they have to waste their time and beat Oliver McCall .
Now that's a very long time away so I assume the WBC would be tired with the lack of sanctioning fees in the mean time and make a few eliminators to fill the coffers , meaning that Maskaev/Peter/Klitschko/McCall would probably have to defend in mandatory before they can even think of unifying .

So the WBC champion will be free to unify sometime in 2009 :rolleyes: .
Now Wladamir isn't going to be waiting around so he(and his camp;) ) will be looking at the Chagaev v Ibragimov winner . Taking a wild assumption that Wlad wins that would make him WBA/IBF/WBO and Vitali wins the WBC , then we're left in a situation in which there is no final unification till one of them loses . If Peter was to come through those WBC fights then we'd have no problem though .

All in all this is a big positive , as I said the first step is the hardest and after that things can sometimes just fall into place .

Yes, It's a move in the right direction so hopefully it leads to more interest in the Heavyweight division.

dlofnep

A bit of finality, at last.