WORLD heavyweight champion Vladimir Klitschko will fight Ruslan Chagaev as planned this evening after health officials ruled the challenger's hepatitis B virus poses no health threat.
The American Association of Professional Ringside Physicians (AAPRP) had urged organisers earlier in the week to postpone the fight in front of an expected 60,000 crowd at Bundesliga club Schalke 04's Veltins Arena stadium in Gelsenkirchen.
The A
APRP said Uzbek Chagaev's hepatitis B virus could be a health threat to people in and around the ring given the fighter could be injured and his blood could infect trainers or spectators in or near the ring.
"The risk of infecting officials and visitors is beyond minimal," Gelsenkirchen health department chief Henriette Reker said yesterday. Reker insisted all possible risks had been considered and said there was no need to re-evaluate the situation.
Chagaev's promoters said the boxer was not infectious. "After contracting hepatitis B many years ago Ruslan Chagaev has never been sick due to hepatitis B. He is just a healthy carrier of hepatitis antigen with constantly normal liver enzymes," Universum Box-Promotion doctor Michael Ehnert said on the promoters' website (www.boxing.de). "Infection doesn't mean illness. According to international expert opinions Ruslan Chagaev is regarded as non-infectious."
Ukraine's 33-year-old Klitschko, the IBF, IBO and WBO champion, was inoculated earlier this week against hepatitis B and said he was comfortable fighting Chagaev.
When Klitschko steps into the ring against Chagaev, it will be in front of the largest boxing audience in Germany since Max Schmeling fought in the 1930s. Action inside the ropes, however, might not live up to the hype.
Klitschko was supposed to be fighting Londoner David Haye to settle a running verbal feud. But Haye bowed out earlier this month, saying he had injured his back.
Haye asked to reschedule the fight in July, but Klitschko wanted to keep the date and the money-spinning 60,000-seat sellout – the biggest boxing crowd in Germany since Schmeling fought Adolf Heuser in front of 70,000 people in Stuttgart on 2 June, 1939. "It's a chance that's coming around for the first time in my entire sporting career," said Klitschko. "I'm incredibly excited about the 60,000 fans."
The 30-year-old Chagaev was named the WBA's "champion in recess" in 2008 after withdrawing from two fights against Nikolai Valuev. After a third bout between the two scheduled for last month in Helsinki was cancelled due to the hepatitis B antigens found in Chagaev's blood, the WBA announced Valuev as the rightful champion and put Chagaev's honorary title "under review." As of last night, the WBA had not clarified whether Klitschko (52-3) will fight for a piece of that title on top of defending his belts.
In February, Chagaev (25-0 with one draw) won a technical decision over Carl Davis Drumond in Rostock, Germany. It was the Uzbekistan-born boxer's first fight in more than a year. Chagaev weighed in yesterday at 102 kg (225lbs), and Klitschko weighed in at 109.
Meanwhile, Amir Khan is confident he can beat Andreas Kotelnik to become Britain's latest boxing world champion when the pair battle it out for the WBA light-welterweight title next month.
The title showdown will take place at the MEN arena in Manchester on 18 July after being re-scheduled due to Kotelnik damaging his teeth during sparring. The original contest was set to take place on 27 June at the O2 arena in London but doctors advised the Ukrainian to rest.
He will undergo a minor operation on his teeth today before returning to his base in Germany to begin preparing for the clash with Khan, who is moving up a level having beaten Marco Antonio Barrera in a lightweight bout in Manchester in March.
The Bolton fighter insists, however, that he can take the light-welterweight crown. "To fight for the world title in only my 22nd fight and at the age of 22 is fantastic," said Khan. "Now I have to go out and win it. I've seen Kotelnik a few times and I've always been impressed by him but once my trainer, Freddie Roach, works out the game plan to beat him, I'm confident I'll be walking away with the title. It is going to be a tough fight but I think the British public want to see me win a world title. This is my time."
Much of the press conference, held at London's Landmark Hotel, focussed on the earlier postponement of the fight. Roach maintained that Khan's preparation in Los Angeles had been disturbed by the decision to re-schedule the contest, but Khan refused to criticise his opponent. "Injuries happen in training camps," he said. "I am happy the fight is still on and hopefully, after returning to LA, I will be at my peak."
Roach, however, was more forthright in his views. "I'm very disappointed because he pulled out with toothache," said the American. "If he can fight two weeks later, I'm a little p***** off because my guy was ready to fight. Then he goes and pulls out of the fight with toothache. I think it is bulls***."
Kotelnik was as reserved as Khan but then he was facing a flight back to Ukraine and surgery on his teeth within 24 hours – his second operation since the injury. "I apologise for the re-scheduling of the fight," he said via his interpreter. "My teeth got broken and the doctor said I had to rest."
