FanHouse SultanIbragimov

Although his Nov. 8 bout slated for Jeju Island, South Korea, was canceled, 47-year-old former four-time champion, Evander Holyfield, could fight South African, Francois Botha, on Dec. 19, in Uganda. A good showing in the Botha fight could also lead to a possible title shot at WBC champion, Vitali Klitschko, Holyfield's manager, Ken Sanders, told FanHouse on Tuesday.

"We do this fight in December, then I'd say in February or March, we could have a championship fight with the WBC's Vitali Klitschko," said Sanders, whose contention is supported by comments made by WBC president, Jose Sulaiman.

"If Evander comes and has a good showing in the fight that takes place in Jeju, I think that Klitschko might take a fight with him," Sulaiman, told FanHouse on Sept. 28 when Holyfield-Derric Rossy still was scheduled. "I believe that Evander Holyfield is one of the best heavyweight fighters of the last quarter century."

We're one step closer to having a unified heavyweight boxing champion after Wladimir Klitschko defeated Sultan Ibragimov to add the WBO title belt to the IBF title belt he already owned.

And we'll get another step closer if, as expected, Klitschko next fights WBA champion Ruslan Chagaev.

But what about the fourth and final heavyweight title belt, from the WBC? That one is currently owned by Oleg Maskaev, who fights Samuel Peter in two weeks. If a Klitschko-Chagaev fight could be arranged quickly, and the winner of that one takes on the Maskaev-Peter winner, we'd have a unified title.

But it's not that simple, because there's a wild card in all of this: Klitschko's older brother, Vitali. Although Vitali hasn't fought in more than three years, there's talk that he'll make his return to the ring some time this year and take on the Maskaev-Peter winner.

That means we could be looking at Vitali Klitschko owning one heavyweight title belt and Wladimir Klitschko owning the other three. And that would set up a brother vs. brother fight for the unified heavyweight title, a fight that would be the biggest thing heavyweight boxing has seen since Lennox Lewis fought Mike Tyson.

Except that the fight will never happen. Both Klitschko brothers say they'll honor a vow to their mother not to fight each other. That means we boxing fans may be robbed of the fight we all really want to see. Thanks a lot, Mrs. Klitschko.

The first heavyweight unification bout of the 21st Century wasn't a particularly entertaining fight, but it was Wladimir Klitschko's first step toward unifiying the titles, with a unanimous decision victory over Sultan Ibragimov at Madison Square Garden.

Klitschko used his enormous height and reach advantage to knock down the southpaw Ibragimov's jabs, and Klitschko's own jabs were effective against Ibragimov. But for much of the fight those left jabs were all he used -- he was so hesitant to follow the left with the right that it raised the question of whether his right hand or shoulder was injured. Klitschko did, however, eventually start unleashing the right.

The crowd grew restless and often booed as the fight wore on and both fighters took cautious approaches, and Klitschko's 50th career win was not from his most impressive.

Ibragimov entered as the WBO champion and Klitschko entered as the IBF champion. There's a good chance that the belts will be unified within the next year, which would be great for boxing. But it would be even better for boxing if its top heavyweight fights were more entertaining than this one.

Tonight's Wladimir Klitschko-Sultan Ibragimov fight is a big one for the heavyweight division, as it could be the first step on the road toward, finally, a unified heavyweight champion. But it was also an opportunity for Klitschko to make an outstanding appearance on Conan O'Brien.

Funny stuff, via Deadspin.

Klitschko-Ibragimov starts around 10 p.m. Eastern tonight on HBO.

After the Kelly Pavlik-Jermain Taylor fight last night, I was flipping through the channels and heard one of the sports talking heads describe it as something along the lines of, "a rare time when boxing actually gave us a good fight."

But that got me thinking, and looking at the schedule of upcoming fights, good fights are actually not rare at all. In fact, 2008 is shaping up to be an excellent year for boxing.

Next week we've got Wladimir Klitschko taking on Sultan Ibragimov, and while neither of those guys is the most graceful fighter you'll ever see, it's a step toward unifying the heavyweight title belts, which would be a great thing for the sport.