FanHouse Juan Carlos Gomez

Vitali Klitschko defeated Juan Carlos Gomez Saturday in Germany, dominating the fight with his superior jabs and ring control, and finally finishing Gomez in the ninth round to retain the WBC heavyweight title.

When it was announced that the March 21 WBC heavyweight title fight between Vitali Klitschko and Juan Carlos Gomez was going to be broadcast live on ESPN, boxing lovers rejoiced: The opportunity to see a high-profile boxing match carried live on ESPN could be just the thing to get sports fans talking about boxing.

Well, so much for that.

It's bad for boxing that WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko will defend his belt against Juan Carlos Gomez instead of David Haye. But it's worse that this kind of thing goes on all the time in this sport.

The two best heavyweights in the world are Vitali and his brother Wladimir Klitschko, who owns the IBF and WBO belts. Since the Klitschko brothers will never fight each other, boxing fans won't get to see a unified heavyweight title.

But the next-best thing would be for one of the Klitschkos to fight Haye, the former undisputed cruiserweight champ who is now a heavyweight. Klitschko vs. Haye is just the kind of heavyweight fight that boxing needs.