*This is from a post I did @ http://www.squidoo.com/vitaliklitschko
On November 5, 2005 Vitali Klitschko announced his retirement. Later, the WBC later awarded Vitali "champion emeritus" status which basically entitles him to mandatory challenger to the WBC Heavyweight championship should he decide to return. He originally left due to injuries and political aspirations in his home country of Ukraine.
On January 24th of 2007, he announced his comeback and desire to fight for world title. At the time Oleg Maskaev was the WBC champion beating Hasim Rahman on August 12, 2006 via 12th round knockout. This was the 2nd time in his career Maskaev defeated Rahman. His 1st from 1999.
It should be noted that Hasim Rahman was scheduled to face Vitali Klitschko for his WBC belt but as mentioned earlier Vitali retired giving Hasim Rahman automatic WBC champion status without even a fight!
To make a long story short two other fighters, Samuel Peter & James Toney had just got done fighting two matches with Peter the victor in determining his own status as mandatory challenger to the WBC title. So there was a conflict. Much time went by eventually Vitali agreed to be the mandatory challenger of Sam Peter vs. Oleg Maskaev, which was supposed to originally happen on October 6 2007 but is now scheduled for March 8, 2008. Oleg Maskaev himself had an injury so that was the basis of that fight being canceled with Peter vs. Mccline happening instead. Vitali himself was supposed to fight Mccline on Septermber 22nd 2007 as a tune-up match but again there was physical issues from Vitali that caused that fight not to fall through.
Vitali is reported to be in great health now, since undergoing operations on his back. He's been training and is eying the outcome of Maskaev vs Peter in March. It should be noted that if for some reason Peter gets injured there is a possiblity Vitali might be the replacement come March 8 for the title.
Good luck Vitali on your return.
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