Earlier today, it was announced that IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (62-3, 52 KOs) suffered an injury to his left bicep injury while training for his previously scheduled September 6th title defense against Kubrat Pulev (20-0, 11 KOs).
In the press statement sent out by Klitschko’s management, it was only mentioned that Wladimir had injured his left biceps while training without going into details about how the injury occurred. According to BILD, Wladimir was injured during a sparring session with one of his 15 sparring partners that had traveled to Going, Austria to help the 38-year-old Wladimir get ready for the fight.
The Klitschko-Pulev fight will be rescheduled for November. They’re looking at possibly scheduling the fight for November 15th, as long as Wladimir’s left biceps responds to rest.
Pulev is going to need to sit and wait for Wladimir to heal up. It’s unknown if Pulev will sit idle waiting for the shot or if he’ll take a tune-up to stay busy.
It would be a risk if Pulev were to get injured taking a tune-up fight, but it might help him if he were to take a stay busy fight because Pulev hasn’t fought in months and he hasn’t taken on a credible opponent since his fight against Tony Thompson last year. Pulev has faced largely weak opposition since he turned pro as it is, but it would still be important for him to get a stay busy fight in order for him to stay sharp for the fight.
The 6’4 ½” Pulev has his work cut out for him once he does finally get a shot at Wladimir. Pulev doesn’t have any of Wladimir’s power or hand speed, and he still fights with the same amateurish style that he used while fighting as an amateur in Bulgaria for many years. Wladimir had much better success as amateur than Pulev, but he was able to adapt to the pro game with his punching power.
