The rumblings and rumors about Wladimir Klitschko potentially returning to the ring are continuing — and Klitschko’s longtime promoter isn’t exactly shooting those rumors down.
“I’ll let Wladimir speak for himself on that,” said Tom Loeffler, who runs 360 Promotions, in an interview with Randy Gordon and Gerry Cooney, the hosts of At the Fights on SiriusXM. In 2002, Loeffler started up K2 Promotions, named after the two heavyweights in its stable, Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko.
Wladimir (64-5, 53 KOs) last fought more than seven and a half years ago, dating back to his 11th round technical knockout loss to Anthony Joshua in late April 2017. Klitschko announced his retirement that August and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2021.
In recent weeks, we learned that Klitschko’s name was briefly brought up as a potential opponent for IBF heavyweight titleholder Daniel Dubois.
“There was a very five-minute conversation about that,” Dubois’ promoter, Frank Warren of Queensberry Promotions, told Boxing News. “It was a suggestion made, but it didn’t happen.”
Klitschko is attending this week’s WBC convention in Germany, where boxing financier Turki Alalshikh asked for Klitschko to face the winner of one of two upcoming heavyweight bouts: the rematch between lineal/WBA/WBC/WBO champ Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury on December 21 or the February 22 bout between Dubois and Joseph Parker.
Klitschko turned pro in 1996, won his first world title in 2000, but seemed as if he would be consigned to the scrap heap after embarrassing losses to Corrie Sanders in 2003 and Lamon Brewster in 2004. But he rebuilt, worked on protecting his flaws and accentuating his strengths, and regained a world title in 2006. His reign featured 18 successful defenses, with six years and 11 defenses as the lineal champion, but ended in November 2015 with a decision loss to Tyson Fury.
Klitschko is 48 years old and turns 49 in March.
“Wladimir has said in the past that he would love to break George Foreman’s record for being the oldest heavyweight champion,” Loeffler said. “Naturally he won’t fight Usyk as his fellow countryman [from Ukraine], but Daniel Dubois is out there now as the IBF titleholder. Just depending on how everything goes on December 21, I definitely wouldn’t rule it out. Every time you look at Wladimir, he’s in tremendous shape. So if anyone can do it at 48 years old, he can do it. I’ll let him make any official announcements that he wants to make.”
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2 and @UnitedBoxingPod. He is the co-host of the United Boxing Podcast. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
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