Ring Size Issue Could Mean No Klitschko Gomez Fight

There is less than 24 hours to go before the WBC heavyweight championship between the current WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko and the WBC #1 mandatory Juan Carlos Gomez, the Gomez team is threatening to pull out of the fight due to a error with the ring size. The ring is reported to be 4 feet less than it is supposed to be under WBC regulations for championship bouts. ARENA-CEO Ahmet Öner had the following to say:

“This is ridiculous! I really don’t understand how a promoter can be so arrogant and ignorant not to follow the rules and build a ring that is almost 4 feet too small. We are not talking about a few inches here!”

“In fight week we have been confronted with all kinds of provocation and unprofessional behaviour by the Klitschko management – for instance they still refuse credentials for my closest office staff and parts of Gomez’ team – but that caps it all! Team Klitschko is either very stupid or very nervous. I have no other explanations for their mistakes. They have been talking a lot about using the smallest possible ring but obviously never even checked the rules. It is nothing but embarrassing – after all we are not talking about a small fight just for fun. This is a world title fight. The world is watching and the Klitschko's have nothing to do but to humiliate themselves.”

After the problem was addressed the ring ropes were adjusted but leaving only 12 inches of space. Öner had the following to say about that:

“Now the space between the ropes and the canvas is only 12 inches instead of 36 inches! This is extremely risky and dangerous. If a fighter stands against the ropes he might easily slip and fall. In the worst case one of the guys could break his legs. And we do not want this to happen to either Vitali or Juan. So we will not allow our fighter to step into this ring!”

The question is can this problem be solved before fight time?


“Well, team Klitschko still got enough time to sort things out and set up a new ring. I hope they are working on this already. We will measure again tomorrow morning and hope that the fight can still go on. Juan is ready to go – and he doesn’t care about the ring size. He said he would even outbox Vitali in a phone booth. But the rules are the rules. We will not disrespect the WBC and we will not allow the Klitschko management to do so.”


I don't think this was done intentionally. Clearly a mistake and I think Öner was a little premature on his verbal attacks towards team Klitschko. Hopefully this problem is fixed soon so we can have the fight!


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