Klitschko to sit out rest of 2016

Former unified heavyweight champion, Wladimir Klitschko will sit out the rest of 2016, according to Dan Rafael.

There had been rumblings of a fight with IBF champion Anthiny Joshua or a fight with Lucas Browne for the WBA title on December 10th, but Klitschko has a calf injury.

“Wladimir pulled a muscle in the calf last week,” Kilitschko’s manager Bernd Boente said. “It’s nothing that bad that we couldn’t go through with a fight if we had something set up, but we discussed things over the weekend. Regardless of the injury, we decided that if we get good news from the WBA that Wladimir can fight for that title against Joshua, we would do it in the spring because we need more time to market and promote such a big fight. We only have five weeks until [Dec. 10]. We still hope the WBA will sanction the fight.

“From the beginning, it was Wladimir’s wish and Joshua’s that we could do the fight. Both sides want it. There is no fight at this moment that is bigger than this fight without any doubt. So why rush it?”

“Let’s say we have someone else Wladimir was going to fight in Germany on Dec. 10, we still have not even announced the fight,” Boente said. “We have a lot to do. We have to fill an arena. There is just not enough time. And if he was fighting Joshua, we need to do more than just a press conference. We need to do a tour, go to Germany also. We decided with Eddie a fight this big needs more time to market than five weeks.”

“I’m healthy and will be ready to fight Joshua or whoever else, hopefully for multiple titles, sometime soon,” Klitschko said.